Damages Awarded to Family of Trucker in Fatal 2009 Crash

By Thomas Greer | February 26, 2014

Many times, trucking accidents claim the lives of passengers who are traveling in smaller vehicles. Sometimes, the victims of trucking accidents are truckers themselves. A 2009 crash in Lebanon County which involved two semi-trailers killed a truck driver and his passenger. This past month, a federal judge awarded $2.2 million dollars to the family of the deceased truck driver. The award includes two million dollars’ worth of lost wages, one hundred thousand dollars for pain and suffering, and one hundred thousand dollars in punitive damages.

The truck driver who was killed in the accident, 36 year old Eric Claxton of Memphis, was driving along I-78 in Union Township when he struck the trailer of another truck. The driver of the other truck, Sukhwinder Singh, was backing his rig along the highway after he had missed his exit. Singh did not check for oncoming traffic before backing up, nor did he use his flashers. At the moment of impact, Claxton’s truck and Singh’s trailer caught fire, and Claxton died while he was trapped in the wreckage. Claxton’s passenger, Eric Burks of Memphis, died a month later, as a result of burns and injuries from the crash. Singh and his passenger were unharmed.

In his ruling, U.S. Middle District Judge William W. Caldwell stated that Sukhwinder Singh was newly licensed as a commercial driver when the accident occurred, having obtained his license only a month before the crash. He noted that Singh had taken the licensing tests before, and had failed both the written and on-road portions of the test on a previous attempt. Caldwell’s ruling also says that Singh had not received any training from his employer, he was unfamiliar with the communication equipment in the truck that he was driving, and he was unfamiliar with the route that he was traveling. Caldwell determined that PVR Transport, the California-based company which employed Sukhwinder Singh and owned the truck that he was driving at the time of the accident, was liable for Claxton’s death for a number of reasons, including respondeat superior and gross negligence. The family of Eric Burks has also brought a successful lawsuit against Sukhwinder Singh and PVR Transport. In May of 2013, Judge Caldwell awarded Burks’ family $2.3 million dollars in damages.

One of the dangers of sharing the road with tractor trailers is that some tractor trailer drivers do not know how to operate their trucks safely. These drivers can be identified during the licensing, training, and hiring processes of their employers, and they should be kept off of the road unless they can learn how to drive the trucks properly. Unfortunately, some drivers who are not road-worthy are still given jobs, and they are not given the training that they need to do those jobs safely. These drivers, and the companies who employ them, must be held responsible for their negligence when a tragedy like the aforementioned crash occurs.

If you have been injured or someone in your family has been killed as a result of a trucking company’s negligence, you need an experienced trucking accident attorney on your side. The skillful and dedicated Tennessee truck accident attorneys at Bailey & Greer, PLLC will fight for you and your family while you focus on putting the pieces of your life back together after your injury or loss. We understand the extent of your pain and suffering and we will work hard to get you the compensation that you deserve.  To schedule a consultation with us, please call our office at 901-680-9777.  At Bailey & Greer, PLLC, we are small enough to care, big enough to fight, and experienced enough to win.

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