A one-person trucking company has been ordered by a jury to pay $411 MILLION to a motorcyclist who was injured in a multi-vehicle accident. The jury award is thought to be the largest of its kind against a small trucking company.
Duane Washington was riding his motorcycle to his home near Tallahassee, Florida one day in July of 2018. While on I-10, he was part of what would end up being a 45-vehicle pileup. According to the incident report, the accident was caused by weather conditions and speeding vehicles. One of the speeding vehicles was a truck belonging to Top Auto Express, a one-man trucking company also based out of Florida.
In the accident, Washington veered off the road into the emergency lane where he impacted a stopped truck – a different truck than the one causing the accident – that didn’t have its lights on, flew off his bike, and landed in the road. He broke both sides of his pelvis away from his spine and suffered severe internal damage. His life-threatening injuries kept him in the hospital for six months. Washington now suffers from severe pain and can only walk with the aid of specialized crutches.
The trial took place entirely over Zoom, the digital video conferencing platform. It is believed to be the first ever trial held entirely over Zoom.
“This is a significant, historic ruling for justice.” One of Washington’s lawyers said according to tallahassee.com. “COVID demanded an unprecedented Zoom trial, but it didn’t stop the jury from hearing and understanding the evidence and returning a record verdict.”
Top Auto defended itself during the trial without the help of a lawyer.
The jury has awarded Washington $411 million. It is not clear how they expect a one-man trucking company to be able to pay that bill.
Source: freightwaves, freightwaves, tallahassee, law
This is just plain stupid!
Stupid is correct that would be the truck driver trying to be a lawyer
Don’t you know!!
It’s likely that the driver could not afford a lawyer, much less $411 million.
Isn’t there some “contributory negligence” in veering off the highway into the “emergency lane”, at such a high rate of speed that you can’t stop if there is another vehicle using that area? It’s not a traffic area – there might be disabled/immobilized vechicles/equipment in there…
Seems like this would be a pretty easy verdict to get overturned. Sure as heck; it’s never going to be paid. This might be another one for bankruptcy court…
If y’all actually want to LEARN what is happening and causing these nuclear verdicts Google “reptile strategy”
Interesting I’ll have a look the name says it all😉
They could have awarded him $411 trillion and he’d see the same amount. $0.
I’m sure he’ll get whatever the insurance company pays out
So the motorcycle actually hit the truck, that had to stop no doubt because of the wrecks in front of him. The driver of the truck got stopped safely. And the dumb ass motorcycle clearly didn’t have his vehicle under control. So the trucker is being punished. Talk about a bunch of asinine jury.
You need to learn reading comprehension and steer away from armchair lawyer.
thats alot of money wow.
Washington cause his own injuries due to speeding in bad weather though the truck was disabled on the emergency lane did not contribute to the reckless operation of Washington who by speeding on a wet roadway lost control of his motorcycle.
A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client🤔🤷🏾♂️
Well number one you don’t go to trial with out a lawyer number 2 the weather was bad so there you go.
This is whats wrong with trucking…
Correction; this is one of many things wrong with trucking.
Glad today is my last day in this industry. 43 years and all I see is things getting worse. It seems it’s every man for himself, and the lawyers are like vultures circling. The thing you don’t see in court is the cars cutting you off, playing chicken with the trucks, slamming on brakes in front of the truck, and tailgating trucks. Oh yes, I see the trucks doing a lot of the same things too. Just glad I’m done.
Good luck collecting that
COVID-19 shut this country down maybe us truckers should try it for a while. Until lawyers leave us alone
The driver who cause the harm was “shut down”.. on the shoulder, with no lights on.. So much for that theory. Another nice yet comical “trucker strike” fantasy.
buddy Owner Operator, pack up truck driving and become a mobile handy man mechanic let’s see how the crooked Lawers get a penny from you.
Don’t blame the guy for representing him self, He simply could not have afforded a lawyer. He did what he had to do considering his financial situation
As most impatient drivers. Especially motorcycle owners. They weave in and out of traffic. This person created his own injuries. We dont know all the details but emergency lane means just that. He should have had a LAWYER then maybe it would’ve been 311 millon..
They played the jury .
10 million would have been to much
I am a truck driver for over 44 years
I ended up in the hospital for over 20 days. Because someone in ecare gave wrong medication for a tick bite and ruin my Kidneys
I have not pressed charges yet
I may in the future
I am still recovering walking with walker any advice ?
Get yours!
This is exactly what’s broken in the legal system in the USA. What a load of BS !!
I did represent my self ones for a speed ticket since then to now for any small reason I always have a lawyer to represent me
411 millions how this guy will be able to pay such a big amount of money
This Judge his not right at all ( no common sense )
This is ridiculous $411 million I feel sorry for the trucking company I wish that all the drivers get together and stop working for two weeks that’s all we need to see what these people are going to do the freaking government the four wheel drivers who gets everything that we transport in United StatesFor a sample in Europe want something or need something they stop and see what happens we just got to get together we are hard-working people
Oh ! One more thing last I checked when you rear end someone its usually your fault not having full control of your vehicle . This trucker was railroaded because he decided to be his own attorney .
What is the point of insurance? Why did his insurance company not be a part of this trial? We as truckers are once again being lied to by The Truckers Report, no way in hell a judge would allow a verdict of this magnitude without a defense lawyer. Also, he was on the side of the road, at the tail end of a pile up, it was NOT his fault, the ambulance chasers need to be fed to the pigs.
In bad weather and fog, truckers are supposed to get off of the road and turn our lights off so no one sees our lights and thinks we are still on the road and follows the tail lights and slams into the back of our truck. The confusing part is that the story says “One of the speeding vehicles was the TRUCK,” so if the truck wasn’t the parked vehicle on the side of the road that the motorcycle hit, why is the truck responsible?
I once sat through a mock trial as a jury member, around the time Big Pharma was being bled over the drug Vioxx. There is no way, no how, Id want a “jury of my peers” sitting in judgement of me. Myself and another guy werent convinced that all the blame fell on the pharma co. We were out numbered, however, by the rest. During the “penalty” phase of deliberation, these half illiterate, Philly public school rejects couldnt comprehend the amount of money they were trying to award was far in excess of what even this pharma powerhouse was worth. Basic concepts were lost on these idiots. It was quite an eye opener.
So …….
A motorcyclist is riding at high speed in the rain, comes up on a wreck and can’t stop so he swerved onto the shoulder and there’s a truck there – and it’s the TRUCK’s fault???
Right.
And the spoon made me fat.
I hope this O/O hires a lawyer and files an appeal and a countersuit for fees.
Yeah, absolutely insane. I turned a corner one time in my truck and nobody was coming from either direction. When I turned and straightened out, there was a motorcyclist that damned near wrecked from almost hitting me bc he was doing about 100 mph. This was a 4 lane road with center median. Speed limit was 40 mph. He followed me and tried to fight me at my delivery but they ran him off. If he hit me, I guarantee you it would of set him for life if he lived. The company I was with usually paid out before it went to trial regardless of whose fault it was. Can’t win.
FAT BASTARD!!!
Just like Werner being liable for a crash when it was a pickup driver that crossed the wide grass median into traffic headed the other direction striking the Werner driver, during a snow storm. The ruling was something along the line of Werner should have known better than to have thier guy out there in the bad weather and if they had not he would not have been hit when the guy in the pickup lost control. In TX.
That’s what started a new,let’s add a couple more zeros in my opinion! Also,only in my opinion,the hot coffee and the million dollar award started the,it’s somebody else’s fault awards that we see!
He did right speaking for him self he seen what time it was why waist money on a lawyer when you still not going to get payed that ole trucker boy is broke now he going to get food stamps ijs
If I were this driver, I’d 1) get a lawyer! and 2) appeal for an overturn of the verdict on the grounds of jury tampering because if the entire case was heard over Zoom then the jury wasn’t sequestered and therefore could easily have been outside influenced. COVID is no excuse for lowering the standards for a fair an unbiased trial. I also agree with Joe that juries today have no concept of the amounts they award and what O/O has $411M? If I had that much $ I sure as @#$& wouldn’t be a truck driver!!
There’s no such thing when it comes to Trucks people see Trucks like dollar signs. And it trucking companies fault be cause they settle instead of going to trail
It’s the Donahue effect. interview the so called victim, identify the bad guy, demand “just us” and make the bad guy pay! Yup, great system has been perverted by the lawyers from the start.
This doesn’t add up as reported. Washington hit a stopped truck in the emergency lane. How was this the fault of another driver in motion and accused of speeding?
I wonder what the “emergency lane’s” designation was? IE: disabled vehicles for instance? If the truck was of the traveling portion of the roadway, you would think the culpability would lie with the vehicle in motion, warning lights and road triangles or not.
I was broke down before blown steer tire had 4 ways on triangle 🔺️ out u think the motorists would move to another lane and the mechanic was there to with his lights on and you can see all of this over a mile away do they get over 🤔 no sometimes I wonder if they’re playing death 2000 if you’ve seen the movie you know want im talking bout, so light or no light u can’t miss a big truck pulled over , unless your not paying attention. Who’s to say he didnt lose power ive been there before , while me and my trainee was putting out triangle they still did move over even if they could. No courtesy
In reading about the accident, there is one thing that is hard for me to figure out. In the description of the accident, it says that the truck was one of the speeding vehicles. A couple of sentences later, it states that the motorcyclist hit the rear of a stopped truck with no lights on. What does the speeding truck and the stopped truck have to do with each other? This seems to be a strange case to me.
Truck drivers are already vilified enough as it is with all the billboards and commercials practically implying we’re just out here running people down. It would of helped having a lawyer, but single man operations like myself have been hurting since late 2018. Mega carriers just payout before it ever goes to trial regardless of fault. Seen it multiple times with company I used to work for.
It sounds like both sides were negligent to me. I turned a corner on a 4 lane road once and no traffic was coming either way and I could see about 1/2 mile both ways. As soon as I straightened up after turning, I saw a guy on a motorcycle in my mirror damned near hit me bc he had to slow down from doing anout 100 and his front tire was shimmying real bad. He followed me to my delivery and tried to fight me but he got ran off. He would of got a massive payout if he hit me and lived, guaranteed. Obviously, it would of been his fault, but that doesn’t matter with truck companies.
Actually, it sounds like only the motorcyclist was at fault bc the truck was on the shoulder. I misread it. The shoulder literally is there for emergencies. If i hit a cop who has a car pulled over and his back lights aren’t on, i guarantee you its my fault, and should be.
Am i missing something? They said one of the “speeding” vehicles was the truck, yet he was stopped. Didn’t read anything about a speeding ticket. Sounds like just an assumption.
If this Driver can afford 411 million he must drive for swift.
I’d tell the corts to go F..k them selfs being a weather related accident speeding my have been running the speed limit .the one at fault is the first car that lost control.not the trucking company this is just crooked and the biker wasn’t very smart for being on the road which makes him just as much at fault
Easy to see the bias in the narrative. Without having any clear information it’s not hard to take a side. But maybe what we all need to take away from this is how as an industry, we need protections in place to stop this kind of verdict from happening in the first place? Big pharma has it with the vaccine issue. Park those trucks and/or pound the rates till we get the protections necessary from the Feds.
This wasn’t a fender bender, he should have had proper representation.
Awarding and collecting are 2 very different things.
Why didn’t his insurance company handle the lawsuit?
My question is how can they prove or even say the top auto truck was speeding if in fact he was parked on the side of the road!!
Eligible. It logs everything…..
Sorry, autocorrect
ELog is what I said.
Hold on a sec:
In the first paragraph, they say the truck was a speeding vehicle.
In the second paragraph, the truck was stopped in the emergency lane.
Something isn’t right.
Either this was a poorly researched article, or there was a biased jury.
The story does not make clear why he represented himself? Usually, the insurance company provides a lawyer (if you are insured). Something is missing here?
As a citizen of the U.S. you have to know the system. Judges were once lawyers. If you think you can represent yourself in a court of law and win , and beat the system, and put lawyers out of business your a fool. Remember judges were once lawyers. So impossible, forget it, don’t even think about it.
What a horribly written article.
The trucker being sued was the jacknife that set off the sequence of crashes. The motorcyclist swerved and rear ended a pickup truck and was thrown.
Still an idiotic judgement!
This comment was more valuable than damn near anything else I’ve read on this entire page. Thank you.
Only in America! Wow. If we did what the cyclist did in our semi trucks we would still be the ones at fault. Thats complete nonsense. Attorney or not the owner of the trucking company still has rights, including right to appeal. Probably a damn left wing judge and jury.
Hold On Everyone…!!!
They (Lawyers) want to Raise Trucking Insurance Coverage from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 so Law Suit’s like this can go from $411 to $822 Millions…
Nevertheless no one’s getting paid…
A poor truck driver representing himself in Court has $0.00…
Earl, get an attorney! I don’t agree with a lot of lawsuit happy folks, however, they permanently damaged you and your livelihood, get an attorney friend.
Scum sucking lawyers are all reptiles and most juries fit the same bill. That sounded like a Philadelphia jury award.
One thing you truckers are almost never accused of, is being intelligent
Caused by speeding vehicles , and the motorcycle hit a vechile that was stopped on the emergency lane . A. All was speeding , B.vehicle on emergency lane was trying to keep out of harms way , C. Motorcycle hits back of non moving , D. Why didn’t motorcycle sue every vechile in front that was stopped? Answer, speeding plus bad weather, trucks required to have 750k minimum, I drive like an idiot and someone should pay for my mistakes!
The Truck Driver should Call FOX/NEWS and Sean Hannity, he could raise $411million in 2 weeks. Just say the motorcycle 🏍 dude is from BLM And ANTIFA. 🤑😂