Widow Francean Coward of Culpeper, Virginia filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Thursday of last week. At Maryland’s Talbot County Circuit Court, Francean filed the lawsuit against Mississippi-based Cooley Transport and driver Brian L. Hutcheson.
Terry Stephone Coward, husband of Francean, was 52 years old when he died in a head-on collision on April 21, 2015. He had been a trucker for 31 years, according to a Daily Progress article.
Brian L. Hutcheson of Marietta, Mississippi was driving westbound on Route 404 in Queen Anne, Maryland on the 21st of April. Brian crossed the center line just shy of 7 a.m. and his 2016 Mack tractor-trailer side-swiped Terry’s eastbound truck, owned by employer Culpeper Trucking. Brian also collided head-on with a third tractor-trailer.
One of the trucks went up in flames. Brian was killed, Terry was killed, and Brian’s 24-year-old passenger, Danielle Mumford, was killed.
Francean’s lawsuit claims that Brian “negligently and unlawfully veered his vehicle across the center line into eastbound traffic without warning, where his truck sideswiped an eastbound tractor trailer,” according to a Daily Progress article.
“The civil complaint includes two counts: negligence – wrongful death against all defendants; and survival action against all defendants.”
The owner of Cooley Transport was reached by telephone on Thursday, however, he did not comment.
“Trucking companies have a duty to safely hire, train and constantly monitor their drivers,” said attorney Cara Luther in a Daily Progress article. “If they fail to live up to this important obligation, the lives of innocent people will continue to be lost unnecessarily on our nation’s highways.”
Source: http://www.dailyprogress.com/starexponent/culpeper-widow-sues-trucking-company-after-her-husband-s-death/article_095f880c-2100-11e5-abc7-0fa8ae0d263d.html
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