Fatal Truck Crash Results in $36.3 million Verdict

Michael Phelan

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 375

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On a clear day in April 2004, a father of eight kids and owner of a plumbing supply company, was driving his Chevrolet Suburban and obeying the rules of the road. At the same time, a driver of a Swift Transportation tractor-trailer drove 65 mph across three sets of rumble strips designed to warn of an approaching stop sign, ran the stop sign, and crashed into the Suburban, killing the father. Swift Transportation conveniently could not locate the driver logs it was required to keep under federal regulations, which no doubt would have shown that its driver was fatigued due to logging too many continuous driving hours. Like most tractor trailer truck accidents, this one was likely caused by driver fatigue.

At trial, the Swift driver had no explanation for why he failed to even slow down. The jury apparently had a good idea why Swift allegedly lost the driver logs, as it awarded $13.5 million in punitive damages on top of the $23.1 million in compensatory damages. The trial took place in Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona. Congratulations to Steven Copple, a Phoenix attorney who represented the Steven estate.

For more information, please refer to the section on Tractor-trailer Accidents.