Werner Pays $150M to Settle Crash Litigation, Avoid Nuclear Verdict

Werner was just trying to make this go away. I wish they hadn't settled. There's going to be some idiot that tries to get rich this way.

 

It's worse than that. The plaintiff's schyster argued that Werner should be strictly liable because the truck wasn't equipped with a collision avoidance system. And to make matters even worse yet, Freightliner had put the word "Deleted" on the bill of sale. Something to consider if you ever think to buy a brand new Freightliner.

 

The article sorta makes it sound as if it was not the parents that walked away from the vehicle. It says that three adults abandoned or walked away from the vehicle leaving the kids in the vehicle. Also says one of those adults were criminally charged. Later it says the parents filed suit against werner. So it does make me question if the parents were there or if there were three adults in charge of the kids. Either way since it was proven that werner wasn't at fault i don't see how they could've been held liable in court but i suppose stranger things have happened these days.

 

Good author. I enjoyed all that I've read.

 

No it's not strange. They do this all the time. Why do you think lawyers buy billboards advertising lawsuits against truckers.

 

Well the general precedent was set early in the last century with a case involving a tug boat that lost a load of coal in a storm because they didn't have a radio. Almost no boats had radios at the time. What happened in these recent cases is that these annoying beepity beeps have now been recognized as qualifying for the precedent.

 

It wasn't a collision avoidance system, it was actually much more mundane item. The lawyers argued, successfully, that the ambient temperature sensor and display not being present (deleted from the orders) meant that Werner was inherently unsafe, as had the driver known it was just below freezing out he might not have been there in the first place delivering a JIT shipment. This is the reason every company out there is ordering every safety item available for their new trucks, as the precedent has been set that if *any* safety item was available yet not included in the order, the company placing the order is inherently unsafe.

 

Because Texas juries of handing out nuclear verdicts, and not just in trucking. Like the cable installer that killed an 83 y.o. customer and the jury awarded the family 7 BILLION

 

I learned a bit back that's it's honestly just better to run and get out of there if you don't have any witnesses and the truck isn't majorly damaged , it's best just to go MIA