US-6, Williams County, OH
Unsafe Driving/Operation Practices |Wrongful Death
The Law Firm for Truck Safety’s Andy Young and DJ Young secured a $2.5M judgment for the surviving family of an Ohio woman taken tragically when a fatigued and inattentive semi-truck driver struck her. The final order for this judgment was rendered by Federal Court Judge James G. Carr of the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division.
Attorneys Andy Young and D.J. Young represented the family of a woman who was a passenger on a motorcycle traveling on U.S. Route 6 in Williams County, Ohio when a deer struck the motorcycle. Our client was ejected from the motorcycle and landed in the westbound lane of Route 6. An off-duty police officer arrived at the scene to find our client lying in the road but talking. Following the deer crash, a truck driver, also traveling westbound on U.S. Route 6, struck our client. She died as a result of the truck driver’s negligence. The truck driver’s hours of service log books (which he is required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) to keep accurately) for the dates and times leading up to the crash contained entries that were inconsistent with the actual movement of the truck he was driving.
This truck driver had also engaged in prior violations of the FMCSRs related to missing hours of service logs, erroneous hours of service log entries, overweight loads, and speeding. The truck company / employer of the truck driver was aware of these violations. Yet, the truck company did not discipline the truck driver for the violations prior to the crash.
The Court issued an order that more likely than not the reasonable juror would draw the following conclusions:
- The truck driver exceeded the maximum work hours allowed under the FMCSRs
- The truck driver was fatigued and was not paying attention to the road ahead of him at the time of the accident and immediately prior to it
- The truck driver was driving too fast such that he could not bring his vehicle to a stop or slow enough to avoid hitting our client by the time he saw her
- The truck driver was negligent
- The truck company negligently supervised the truck driver
- The truck driver’s and truck company’s negligence was the proximate cause of the death of our client.
