Jury Awards $5.2 Million in Truck Crash Case; Union Pacific, Driver of Victim’s Car Held Liable in 2002 Accident

FORT WORTH, Texas, Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ — A Tarrant County jury has returned a $5.2 million verdict against Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific Railroad Company and a Mesquite woman in a negligence lawsuit over a 2002 tractor trailer accident that left a Waco man permanently paralyzed. The jury placed blame on both the Union Pacific truck driver and the driver of the car that the truck hit, and found them liable for damages to the plaintiff, Curtis Woods.

The verdict follows eight days of trial in Judge Ken Curry’s 153rd District Court in Fort Worth.

“By its verdict, the jury in essence said that what happened to Curtis Woods shouldn’t have happened,” says attorney James C. Orr, Jr. of the Texas law firm of Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei, who represented Mr. Woods at trial.

In the 2002 accident, Mr. Woods was a passenger in a car driven by Crystal Lowder. Ms. Lowder was trying to enter traffic on I-30 eastbound from Loop 820 in Fort Worth when she lost control of her car, possibly due to a problem with one of the tires. Her 1992 Chevrolet went across all three lanes of traffic, hit a concrete barrier, then traveled back across all three lanes again, coming to a stop in the right-hand lane.

All of the other vehicles on the road managed to slow down and stop or pull over, including the car immediately in front of the Union Pacific truck. But instead of slowing down, the truck went around the car in front of it and hit Ms. Lowder’s car broadside.

Mr. Woods, who was 19 years old at the time of the accident, was sitting in the back seat. He suffered a break at the C6 vertebrae of his spine and was left a quadriplegic.

Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei is an AV-rated firm that focuses its practice on the representation of plaintiffs in business disputes, civil litigation matters, and more. With 11 attorneys and a staff of 50, the firm’s trial teams handle a full array of civil litigation and business cases across Texas and the United States.

If you would like more information on the verdict in the case involving Curtis Woods, please contact Mark Annick at 800-559-4534, pager 214-967-2299 or mark@legalpr.com .

Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei

CONTACT: Mark Annick, +1-800-559-4534, or pager, +1-214-967-2299 ormark@legalpr.com , for Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei