Lawsuit filed in I-16 fatal crash

The mother of one of the five nursing students killed in an I-16 multi-vehicle pileup last week has now sued a trucking company, claiming its employee caused her daughter's death.

Kim Deloach McQuaig filed the wrongful death suit Wednesday, April 29, against Total Transportation of Mississippi and its parent company, Tennessee-based U.S. Xpress Enterprises.  It seeks $15,000 in damages, plus punitive damages and attorneys' fees.

WSB legal analyst Ron Carlson says while the criminal probe is ongoing, its results are not needed to file a civil suit.

"The theory of recovery here is that the sins of the truck driver get attributed to the employer," says Carlson.

The Bryan County State Court lawsuit argues that the Total Transportation truck driver was negligent in his "duty not to injure others while operating a motor vehicle."

The driver is accused in the lawsuit of "following too closely, failing to keep a proper lookout, driving at a speed greater than was reasonable and prudent under highway conditions, and driving without regard for the actual and potential hazards then existing."

A Georgia State Patrol post commander has said that the tractor-trailer failed to slow in time to avoid the traffic that had braked in front of him on I-16 eastbound.

Carlson anticipates "A massive amount of litigation coming out of this very tragic wreck, one of the saddest parts being that the young women were en route their last day of clinical rotations.

"Wrongful death lawsuits are particularly expensive when the deceased individuals are young, like here," continues Carlson, "and measuring out their life expectancies stretches out for a lengthy period of time, as will be the situation with these nurses."

The filing seeks a jury trial.

Five students from Georgia Southern University's nursing program died in the seven-vehicle wreck on April 22.  Three other people, including two more students, were injured.

The driver is not named among the defendants.  Several insurance companies are listed as defendants: Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Group, Aon Risk Services Southwest Inc., Liberty Insurance Corp., Mountain Lake Risk Retention Group, Inc., and Travelers Property Casualty Co. of America.

The suit also contends that 21-year-old Abbie Deloach "had a remaining life expectancy of 58.73 years" and therefore seeks to "recover the full value of her life" after her wrongful death.

“Abbie Lorene Deloach was in no way negligent nor contributed to the accident in question,” Savannah attorneys Mark Tate and James Shipley say in the lawsuit.

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