- Free Consultation*: 404-253-7862 Tap Here To Call Us
$23. 5 Million Verdict Against Swift Transportation for Spinal Cord Injury to Yellow Freight Employee
A Kansas federal court jury has awarded a $23.5 million verdict for a serious spinal cord injury arising from a 2006 wreck in New Mexico, according to a news story by Ron Sylvester of the Wichita Eagle. The judge reduced the amount to $15.3 million because the jury decided the driver of the other truck was only 65 percent at fault.
A Swift Transportation truck driver was backing up from a rest stop onto the highway when she hit a Yellow Freight truck. The driver of the Swift Transportation truck tested positive for methamphetamine but claimed she was rear-ended. Accident reconstruction proved that story to be false.
The driver of the Yellow Freight truck was killed and the passenger / co-driver had a severe spinal cord injury. This verdict was for the spinal cord injury victim. The wrongful death case is set for trail next spring.
This was not the biggest verdict against Swift Transportation. Last year an Arizona jury awarded $36.5 million to the family of a man killed in a collision with Swift trucks.
At this firm we frequently represent truck drivers who are injured by the negligence of other truckers.
Ken Shigley is an experienced Georgia trucking trial lawyer who has served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute. He is on the Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and frequently speaks at national continuing legal education seminars for the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. He has recently spoken on trucking litigation topics at continuing legal education programs both at home in Georgia and in Nashville, New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago, and is scheduled to do so in San Diego in 2009. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he was a faculty member for ten years at the Emory University Law School Trial Techniques Program. Currently he serves as Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.