Posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at 11:51 am
A $63 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by the families of eight people killed in a Oklahoma trucking accident last year.
According to court documents, the settlement was announced as jury selection was scheduled to begin Thursday morning.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of eight people who were killed when 76 year-old Donald Creed drove his tractor-trailer into several cars that were stopped on the Will Rogers Turnpike on June 26 of last year. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board determined that driver fatigue was the cause of the crash.
Creed pleaded guilty to multiple counts of negligent homicide in August. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 10 years of probation.
The families of the victims filed suit against Creed and the company he worked for, Associated Wholesale Grocers, for failure to properly train and supervise drivers.
Federal investigators say Creed was suffering from fatigue caused by circadian disruption stemming from his work schedule. Creed likely had less than five hours of sleep prior to beginning his work shift at 3:00 a.m the day of the crash, according to the NTSB. The crash report said Creed never applied brakes or performed any evasive maneuvers to avoid colliding with the stopped traffic.
If you have been injured in an Oklahoma trucking accident, you may be eligible to receive compensation. Please contact the Oklahoma trucking accident attorneys of the Abel Law Firm at (405) 239-7046 for more information.
