10.07.2009
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| Accident victims' families sue driver
Quote: NORMAN, Okla. — Family members of the 10 people who were killed when a tractor-trailer slammed into a line of stopped cars on a turnpike have sued the truck's driver and his employer.
A 10-page lawsuit filed in Cleveland County District Court names Donald L. Creed, of Willard, Mo.; Kansas City, Kan.-based Associated Wholesale Grocers; two insurance companies, a California company and two individuals as defendants.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $10,000.
Creed, 76, has been charged with 10 misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide in connection with the June 26 accident on the Will Rogers Turnpike (Interstate 44) in Ottawa County, in the northeastern tip of Oklahoma.
Creed's attorney in the criminal case couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. A message left for Steve Dillard, vice president for corporate sales at Associated Wholesale Grocers, was not immediately returned Tuesday.
According to an Oklahoma Highway Patrol report, Creed's cruise control appeared to be set at about 70 mph — 5 mph below turnpike limit — before the 1:16 p.m. accident.
Investigators found no evidence that Creed tried to brake or take evasive action before hitting the other cars, which had stopped because of an earlier crash, the Highway Patrol report said.
Those killed included Frisco, Texas, resident Randall Hayes, 38; his wife, Shelby, 35; their son, Ethan Hayes, 7; and his mother-in-law, Cynthia Olson, 55, of Crossroads, Texas.
Also killed were Oral Hooks, 69, of Oklahoma City; his wife, Earlene, 63, and two sons, Antonio, 42, and Dione, 41.
Phoenix residents Ricardo Reyes, 39, and Ernestina Reyes also perished, but their 12-year-old daughter, Andrea, survived.
According to the lawsuit, Creed "failed to slow and maintain control of his truck as he drove his tractor-trailer rig into the slowed or stopped traffic at an unsafe speed."
| http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6655529.html  |
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