On behalf of Hargadon, Lenihan & Herrington, PLLC posted in Truck Accidents on Monday, November 21, 2011. A commercial truck accident that took the life of one man in Arkansas three years ago is now going to cost the Kentucky employer of the truck driver who caused it plenty.  A federal jury in Harrison, Arkansas, found Dunaway Timber Co. of Fordsville, Kentucky, ultimately responsible for the crash and resulting fatality and ordered it earlier this month to pay $7 million in damages.

The Dunaway driver lost control of his big rig, hit two passenger cars and then slammed into another truck on an Arkansas interstate in September 2008. The other trucker died from a heart attack.

The jury assigned 75 percent of the fault in the accident to Dunaway and 25 percent to its driver, and ordered the company to pay the full damage amount. Trial evidence established that Dunaway was negligent in its hiring and management practices, which the jury found to be directly contributing causes to the fatal accident. Specifically, Dunaway did not properly examine the driver’s employment application, which was replete with falsehoods and material errors. The driver omitted mention of a recent accident he had been involved in, as well as two previous license revocations owing to drunk driving convictions.

Moreover, Dunaway assigned the driver to a route that could not be completed within federal hours-of-service limits. As a result, the trucker was overly tired and had already driven well beyond legal commercial driving limits when the accident occurred. “It was a recipe for disaster when they put the keys in this man’s hands,” said an attorney involved in the case.