The truck driver was arraigned on four counts of negligent homicide and reckless driving, according to the West Virginia State Police.
Police stated that last April, the truck driver’s rig crossed the median and slammed into an SUV carrying a family from Salisbury, North Carolina. All four of them died at the scene. They had been traveling to Ohio to visit family.
The truck driver suffered several broken bones. Charges were filed because witnesses stated the trucker’s actions may have not been appropriate once he lost control of his truck.
Our View
As Virginia personal injury attorneys, our condolences go out to the family in this terrible truck crash. It is tragic that apparent negligence on the part of the truck driver led to the death of an entire family. This tragedy has certainly had terrible personal, emotional and financial impacts on that entire family and community.
Our personal injury attorneys in Virginia and North Carolina understand the financial devastation that occurs when a serious truck accident takes a life, or lives. Our truck accident attorneys handled a case a few years ago where our client had stopped his truck legally on the I-95 shoulder in Virginia to check on his load. Another truck veered off the road and sideswiped our client, killing him.
His widow hired our personal injury attorneys to investigate the accident and represent her in a wrongful death lawsuit. She was in a difficult financial situation because she had several small children.
Our personal injury attorneys first obtained medical records for the other truck driver. He actually passed away himself not long after the crash, so it was likely there was an underlying medical condition involved. Commercial truck drivers must be physically fit or they should not be cleared to drive. A major question was whether the trucker had concealed his medical condition from his employer.
Our attorney then retained a medical doctor to show the truck driver knew or should have known of his medical condition that would have interfered with his ability to drive. We filed a lawsuit against the trucking company on the basis that he had had a sudden medical emergency, but we argued that he was aware of should have been aware of the condition.
The case did not settle at first, but eventually it settled for $2.25 million, and our personal injury attorneys also set up structuredd settlements that provided for the growth of the setttlement funds so that at age 18, the children would have funds that increased in value and would be tax free.
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