Settlement in death case

Beasley Allen recently reached a settlement of $4 million dollars with David Bulger, Inc., a trucking company, in a highway construction project death case. The settlement, which was partial in nature, was only for the claim against that company. We still have a claim pending against Wiregrass Construction Company, the general contractor on the project, which we believe has at least equal value. The case involves an accident that took place at a road construction project on County Road 10 in Macon County, Alabama.

On May 9th of last year, the Assistant County Engineer, while inspecting the construction project, was run over by a dump truck owned by David Bulger, Inc. The truck was delivering asphalt to the job site. Wiregrass Construction had overall responsibility for traffic control and safety at the construction site. At the time of the incident, traffic was reduced to one lane on a rural two-lane highway. Flaggers were supposed to be located at each end of the project to control traffic. An escort vehicle was supposed to escort highway traffic through the project. Wiregrass Construction failed to maintain the area in and around the construction project in a safe manner.

The dump truck involved was improperly allowed inside the project area which created a most dangerous situation. As highway traffic was being escorted through the project area, the dump truck pulled off the roadway and ran over the engineer who was killed. A post-accident drug screen of the dump truck driver revealed traces of marijuana and other drugs in his body. Further, the dump truck driver’s prior driving history revealed multiple moving violations and prior license suspensions. It was quite clear that the driver should never have been allowed to drive in a construction work zone. It is also clear that Wiregrass Construction failed to handle the entry of delivery trucks coming into the construction zone in a proper and safe manner. Now that the partial settlement has been reached with one of the defendants, we will proceed to trial against Wiregrass Construction. Mike Crow is the primary lawyer from our firm handling the case for the victim’s family.