Kreisman Law Offices Professional Corporation
A federal court jury in St. Louis found that the driver of a tractor-trailer, Ilija Kuresevic of Fort Worth, Texas, was responsible for the crash in the early morning hours of Feb. 26, 2010 in Effingham County, Ill. The injured party, George Reaves Jr., a St. Louis County truck driver, rear-ended another truck driven by Kuresevic on Interstate 70 in Illinois.
Reaves claimed that the Kuresevic truck stopped or almost stopped in the roadway at 3 a.m., which was the reason for the crash.
Reaves’s lawsuit said that when his UPS tractor trailer rear-ended Kuresevic’s truck, Reaves was seriously injured. He claimed that he injured his head, face, back and other parts of his body, including the loss of the tip of his tongue.Reaves was also rear-ended by another truck.
Kuresevic was only mildly injured in the crash. The plaintiff and the defendant blamed each other for the collision.
Reaves testified at trial that he had taken a 15-minute safety break when he stopped to rest in Effingham, Ill., before the incident.
Apparently the Kuresevic truck had past mechanical problems and regulatory claims that were made against the trucking company, Kim Trucking. The company that is owned by Kuresevic and his wife.
The attorney for Reaves, Brent Sumner, said that UPS fired Reaves after this occurrence. The jurors found in favor of Reaves and against Kuresevic in the total amount of $2.2 million, but reduced the verdict by 50 percent because of the fault attributable to Reaves.
Naturally, the difficulty in proving the case was the fact that Reaves rear-ended Kuresevic and not the other way around. According to the report of this jury verdict, more than half of the verdict was for the pain and suffering of Reaves.
George Reaves, Jr. v. Ilija Kuresevic, et al.
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling trucking crash cases for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of another for more than 37 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Naperville, Wheaton, Aurora, Geneva, St. Charles, Bartlett, Schiller Park, Chicago (Jefferson Park), Chicago (Norwood Park), Berkeley and Hickory Hills, Ill.
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