Idaho Jury Finds Trucking Company Liable for Teens' Death Must pay $1.5 million damages in '95 wreck By Ron Sitton Trucker Staff BOISE, Idaho — A Boise jury found a Washington trucking company liable for an accident that killed two teenagers because it failed to keep track of its driver's log. Gordon Trucking Inc. of Sumner, Wash., was fined $1.5 million for the Aug. 21, 1995 accident that killed 17-year-old Anthony Prince and his best friend, 18-year-old Andrew Torres. The teenagers were driving to begin classes at the University of Idaho. The wrongful death award was made to Larry and Cheryl Prince of Caldwell, Idaho. A similar wrongful death suit brought by the Torres family will go to trial Aug. 6. The jury found Gordon Trucking knew driver Roger Johnson, 56, had falsified his driving logs, and the company failed to cross-check his logs against computer records. The company uses satellite tracking and fuel records to track driver performance for each of its 600 driver s. After reconstructing Johnson's driving time, the plaintiff's expert witness said Johnson worked 18, 12 1/2 and 10 hours respectively in the three days leading up to and including the accident. Company records show Johnson consistently violated the 70-hour rule, which dictates drivers work no more than 70 hours in eight days. In addition, the law allows only 10 hours of driving before resting eight hours, and dictates drivers cannot be on duty for more than 15 hours total in any day. Plaintiff attorney Robert C. Huntley, of Givens, Pursley and Huntley, said Johnson had driven 92 hours in eight days leading to the accident. Gordon Trucking Inc. is liable since Johnson was acting as a company agent, he said. "There is no reason to drive beyond the lane unless he was inattentive or driving too fast," Huntley said. "Nobody knows that he went asleep. He was just inattentive and tried to get back on [the road]." The paintiffs found Gordon Trucking scanned its drivers logs into a computer. Then, one woman was responsible for checking the 600 drivers logs against Qualcomm records, Huntley said. The woman testified she only had half a day each month to cross-check the records; in that time only 2 percent of the records were checked. "Sometimes his log had him two and a half states away from where he really was," Huntley said. "One time in August, his log omitted 856 miles of driving yet the company paid him for those miles." He said the company has a responsibility to do a better job keeping the records. The accident At about 7:50 p.m., Johnson was traveling southbound on US 95, a two-lane highway, according to the Idaho State Police accident report. He was driving a 1995 Freightliner semi pulling two 28-foot trailers loaded with toilet paper. Torres and Prince were northbound on the same road in a Toyota 4X4 pickup. About 16 miles north of New Meadows, Johnson's truck went off the side of the road. He corrected the truck, causing the swaying rear trailer to tip on its right side, though it remained attached to the first trailer by a safety chain. "The rear trailer swung to the outside of the curve ... hitting two fence posts, some large rocks and climbing a three foot rock wall hitting a power pole which redirected the rear of the trailer back onto the roadway into the path of the oncoming Torres vehicle," the report states. "The rear of the axle hit the Torres vehicle head on." Torres was killed instantly, and Prince died en route to the hospital. Johnson was not injured, but his trailer and its load caught fire from contact with downed power lines. Johnson, then of West Valley, Utah, was wearing a back brace for a previous injury. He had returned to work Aug. 4 and had the prescription medication Soma in the truck. Johnson denied taking the medication, but trace amounts were found in a d rug test taken after the accident, Huntley said. Federal regulations prohibit drivers from taking medication or having medication in the truck while driving, Huntley said. Johnson was subsequently released from his job and has a Utah governor's warrant for his arrest on two criminal misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter. He has not been found to answer the charges, according to the Adams County [Utah] Prosecuting Attorney's office. Steve Gordon, Gordon Trucking's chief operating officer, was unable to comment on the jury verdict because the second trial is pending. Although an appeal is unlikely, he said the company is leaving the option open. "We are very sorry and sympathetic to the families," Gordon said. "We're sorry it happened." Attorney Andy Brassey, the defendents attorney of Brassey, Wetherell and Crawford, was unable to comment on the case pending the August trial. Angered Truckers Angry truck drivers called the Idaho Statesman after a story on the verdict ran indicating "Fatigued truck drivers cause 58 percent of fatal accidents on the nation's highways." Reporter Ellie Rodgers said the story originally indicated fatigued drivers were the cause in heavy truck accidents, but the sentence clarifying her statement was removed during the editing process. Her information came from a National Transportation Safety Board study. The study was based on 113 single-vehicle heavy truck accidents in which the driver survived. Six accidents were not included in the study. Based on the determination of probable cause, 58 percent of the single-vehicle heavy truck accidents were fatigue related. The study does say research has indicated "driver fatigue may be a contributing factor in as many as 30 to 40 percent of all heavy truck accidents." The Idaho Statesman ran a correction in its June 17 issue. AP sources contributed to this article. This story appeared in the June 23-July 6, 1997, issue of The Trucker.
© 2004 Ronald Sitton Revised 20040909 - http://www.sitronspost.com/obs/pf/ct.html |