Florida Truck Accident Lawsuit Yields Nuclear Verdict Against Logging Company

A Florida logging company that failed to vet their driver recently lost a personal injury lawsuit filed by three injured plaintiffs. After a 4-week trial, a Nassau County jury reached a unanimous decision awarding $141.5 million to the plaintiffs. The case involved a logging truck crash that happened in March 2020. Three people were seriously injured in the crash which included a 5-year-old girl who suffered permanent brain damage. The driver of the truck had a lengthy criminal and traffic violation history. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said that the logging truck company failed to perform a background check on the driver before hiring him.

According to the lawsuit, on March 3, 2020, the defendant driver was driving an 80,000-pound log truck on State Road 200 in Nassau County. At the time, the driver was working for K&N Logging, a Columbia-based log truck company. The plaintiffs argued that the defendant driver had been driving since 4 a.m. and was going 67 mph in a 45 mph zone. At this point, the driver approached a congested area of traffic with construction workers, school buses, and stopped traffic, as parents were picking up their children from school. The defendant driver failed to notice the stopped traffic in time and crashed his rig into a line of cars that had stopped in front of him. The accident occurred largely because the driver was speeding and couldn’t stop his rig in time to account for stopped traffic. This is a shamefully common cause of accidents involving large commercial semi-trucks.

Elements of negligence by the trucking company 

The plaintiffs targeted the hiring practices of the trucking company in their lawsuit against the defendants. They alleged that the trucking company failed to perform a tox screen on the driver after the accident occurred. Further, it was unclear if the driver was fatigued because the logging company never had their driver keep a log book of his hours of operation. Records that could have indicated that the driver was using his cell phone at the time of the crash were destroyed.

According to the plaintiffs, the logging company “blindly” hired the driver and put him on the roadway with no application, no background check, no driving history check, and no criminal background check. Further, the company never checked with the driver’s previous employers or performed a pre-employment test.

At trial, jurors learned about the defendant driver’s criminal history which included battery on a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, running a red light and speeding in a commercial vehicle, DUI, and more according to the plaintiffs.

Ultimately, companies are responsible for the conduct of their employees. This verdict should send a message to the industry that companies are liable when they put bad drivers in control of large, dangerous vehicles.

Talk to a Tampa, FL Truck Accident Lawyer Today 

The Tampa personal injury attorneys at Florin Gray represent the interests of those injured in accidents with commercial vehicles. Call our office today to schedule an appointment, and we can begin investigating your case immediately.

Source:

news4jax.com/news/local/2024/11/07/a-log-truck-company-failed-to-do-checks-on-driver-who-caused-a-multi-vehicle-crash-now-it-must-pay-millions-to-victims/