James DeFranscesco, 53, owned his own trucking company. He parked his tractor-trailer for the night at a truck stop in Georgia but was awakened when an adjacent tractor-trailer got stuck to his rig after turning too sharply while pulling out. DeFranscesco opened his door and fell to the pavement while…
Articles Posted in Semi-Trailer Truck Accidents
$1 Million Settlement in Failure to Yield Right-of-Way, Motorcycle/Truck Intersection Crash
Jeffrey Newton, 52, was driving his motorcycle through an uncontrolled intersection. While in the intersection, Steven Giambruno was driving a semi-truck as part of his employment with Freight Logistics Inc. Giambruno allegedly turned left in front of Newton. The motorcycle and the truck crashed and Newton was ejected from his…
$9 Million Settlement for Wrongful Death in Failure to Perform Adequate Background Check in Tractor-Trailer Crash
Marikate Maggio, an 18-year-old student, was driving a Mini Cooper on a highway when she arrived at an intersection with a traffic light. She attempted to turn left when a tractor-trailer driven by Miguel Garcia-Moreno crashed into her vehicle. Maggio suffered traumatic injuries and died twenty minutes later. She was…
$6 Million Jury Verdict in Head-On Crash Case
Sammie Pendergrass, 24, was driving on a highway when Franklin Burgess lost control of his tractor-trailer, crossed the median, and collided head-on with Pendergrass’s van. Pendergrass was thrown from his vehicle into a ditch; he suffered blunt force trauma and other serious injuries. He lost consciousness approximately 30 minutes after…
$2.5 Million Settlement Reached in Rear-End Crash
The Doe family was riding in a SUV on a highway on the way to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Jane Doe, 40, was driving the SUV when the car was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer that was moving at approximately 25 mph. The tractor-trailer was in the right lane and…
U.S. District Court Rejects Defendant’s Causation Defense in Tractor-Trailer Death Case
James Archibald was a diabetes patient who had called his wife to say he was coming home from work early because he was feeling ill. Archibald was driving along a westbound rural road in southern Illinois at about 9 p.m. Suddenly, he encountered a hazard: A tractor-trailer owned by Orbit…
$70.5 Million Jury Verdict in Semi-Tractor-Trailer Crash with Passenger SUV
Tomasa Cuevas was traveling in her SUV with her two children, Alejandro, 16, and Maritza, 11. Amarjit Aulakh, an employee of Rai Transport Inc., drove his semi-tractor-trailer through a red light. This caused a T-bone collision with Cuevas’s vehicle. Tomasa Cuevas, 42, suffered fractures to her skull and face as…
$15 Million Spine Injury Settlement After Truck Rear-End Crash
A truck driver, the plaintiff, Joseph Streetman, was operating a Penske truck on a highway when he was rear-ended by a pickup truck that had just been rear-ended by a tractor-trailer driven by Walto Hendricks. Hendricks was driving for his employer, Gardner Trucking. Streetman, 77, was taken by ambulance to…
Illinois Appellate Court Affirms $54 Million Jury Verdict Where Defendant-Appellant Failed to Raise Issue in Post-Trial Motion
David Lee Johnson, an employee of Universal AM-CAN Ltd. and Louis Broadwell LLC, was driving a truck owned by his employers above the speed limit while on a suspended license. Johnson crashed his vehicle into a Jeep in front of him driven by the plaintiff, James Denton. The crash pushed…
$15 Million Jury Verdict in Rear-End Crash Caused by Tractor-Trailer Driver
Jorge Amparo was traveling on an interstate highway in rainy conditions during heavy traffic. Evans Delivery Co. driver Jose Ayala was operating an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer in the roadway’s middle or left lane while he was talking on his cellphone. As Amparo stopped for traffic in the left lane, Ayala’s tractor-trailer…