Jurors last Thursday handed down a $2.25 million verdict after finding a trucking company and one of its drivers responsible for the crash that killed a Virginia teenager.
The award includes $950,000 to each of Couch’s two siblings and $300,000 to Couch’s mother. Jurors declined to award punitive damages in the case.
The crash occurred after Couplin parked his big rig in the right lane of Jefferson Avenue in Newport News, Virginia, and entered a local fast-food restaurant. Couch’s family contends the defendants are responsible for the wreck by blocking the lane of travel and creating a deadly hazard.
But Fried Goldberg’s Joseph Fried, representing Couch’s family, pointed to evidence he said showed that the tractor-trailer’s improper stoppage caused the fatal wreck.
Fried told jurors that Couplin violated training and a range of rules by stopping his truck in the roadway and leaving it unattended to enter the restaurant. And while Palmer’s car may have collided with other vehicles, Fried noted that it was the collision with the parked tractor-trailer that was fatal.
“Part of our problem with the [tractor-trailer] parking out there is because it adds so much more risk,“ Fried said, before requesting between roughly $34-38 million in compensatory damages, plus a finding that punitives were warranted. “It was the configuration of that trailer. If this had been almost anything else [the vehicle collided with]… we wouldn’t be here today.”
Winsky added that the defense took the case to trial because they believed the financial claim was excessive.
