April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and today on the blog, we take a look at another major lawsuit involving distracted driving.
On July 15, 2008 a trucking accident in Missouri happened that severely injured 53-year-old Mark Tiburzi. The accident also injured another 14 people and killed three others. The accident was caused by 49-year-old Jeffrey D. Knight, who then faced involuntary manslaughter charges in St. Louis County.
As a result of injuries sustained in the accident, Tiburzi was left permanently disabled, unable to walk or talk, and now requires constant nursing home care.
Prosecutors originally claimed that the driver of the vehicle got distracted while attempting to reach for his cellphone. Additionally, prosecutors also said that the driver of the truck was in violation of truck-driving regulations since he was driving longer than the maximum amount of hours that was allowed over an eight-day period at the time of the accident.
As a result of the lawsuit, Tiburzi was awarded $13.8 million and another $4.2 million to his wife. The judge found that Knight’s negligence was the cause of the accident, and awarded the damages against both the truck driver and the company the man was working for at the time: Holes Transport, Inc.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are thousands of wrongful deaths of people involved in distracted driving accidents every year in the United States: