The Kentucky trucking company that hired the driver responsible for a deadly June 2015 crash that took six lives filed for bankruptcy in October of 2019. As reported by WRCB TV 3, the trucking company owes more than $330 million in lawsuit claims resulting from the fatal crash. The company’s total assets were reportedly less than one-third of that amount at the time of the bankruptcy filing.
Families of the injured and killed accident victims sued the company after the 18-vehicle chain-reaction crash occurred on an Interstate 75 work zone in Tennessee. According to FreightWaves, the trucking company’s driver responsible for the crash received a sentence of 55 years. The jury ordered him to serve his time without the possibility of parole.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the truck driver was traveling at speeds between 78 and 82 mph when he entered the work zone. Combined with his use of illegal amphetamines, he was incapable of reacting in time to the slow-moving traffic in front of him. The truck driver’s charges included vehicular homicide and driving under the influence. The trucking company hired him less than two weeks before the catastrophic collision.
Records showed that the truck driver had four previous crashes — two involving his operation of a commercial vehicle — during the three years prior to his hiring. An attorney for one of the plaintiff parties asserted that the trucking company should have hired only qualified drivers and provided adequate training.
Plaintiffs will approach the court in the wake of the trucking company’s bankruptcy filing to proceed against any remaining assets and an insurance policy. An assertive pursuit of justice for the families harmed by the tragic and preventable accident may serve to bring the survivors their hoped-for closure.
