Passenger Paralyzed When Car Collided With 18-wheeler
On April 27, 2002, plaintiff Curtis Woods was an unbelted backseat passenger in a sedan, driven by Crystal Lowder on Interstate 30 in Fort Worth, when the car and a Union Pacific Railroad tractor-trailer, driven by Donald Slovak, collided. Lowder, who was entering the freeway from an entrance ramp, had lost control of her vehicle. Her car traveled across all three lanes of the freeway and struck the concrete divide and then spun or rolled backwards across all three lanes again until it reached the last lane where the Union Pacific 18-wheeler hit the car on the driver’s side in the area of the backseat.Woods sued, claiming vehicular negligence on the part of Union Pacific, Slovak and Lowder, saying that the wreck left him paralyzed.Plaintiff’s counsel argued that Lowder was negligent for driving erratically and losing control of her vehicle. Counsel contended that Union Pacific and its driver were negligent because the Union Pacific truck was too closely following the vehicle in front of it, and because it could have stopped short of the Lowder vehicle.Attorneys for Union Pacific and Slovak denied any responsibility on their clients’ part. They said Lowder entered the freeway ahead of Slovak at a high rate of speed, driving erratically and, almost immediately upon entering the freeway, lost control of her vehicle, causing this entire incident. Counsel argued that Slovak, upon seeing an emergency up ahead of him, moved his truck to the right hand lane away from the direction Lowder was traveling and began to slow down and bring his truck to a stop. Lawyers contended Lowder’s car bounced off the concrete median in an unexpected fashion and that there was nothing Slovak could have done to prevent the accident.
Attorneys for Lowder maintained that she was a recently licensed driver and was not driving erratically or speeding at the time of the collision. Counsel argued that Lowder’s car went out of control due to no fault of her own. Lawyers pointed out that Woods said he heard a popping noise consistent with a blowout just as the car was going out of control. Attorneys further argued that all the drivers whose cars were closer to Lowder’s vehicle than the Union Pacific truck acted in time to stop well behind her car as it rolled back across the traffic. Counsel maintained that it was not the impact with the concrete wall that paralyzed Woods, and that if the Union Pacific truck had been maintaining a proper following distance and had stopped like the rest of the traffic instead of choosing to go around the car in front of it, Woods would not have been injured.
Woods was paralyzed from the waist down and has impaired use of his hands.
He sought past and future medical costs, restitution for past and future physical impairment, past and future pain and suffering and compensation for disfigurement.
The jury awarded Woods $5.005 million. They placed 94% of the liability on Lowder and 6% on Union Pacific driver Slovak.