A Tennessee jury awarded $6.65 million in damages recently to the mother of a 17-year-old girl who died in a tractor-trailer accident. Lindsey Garretson was killed August 8, 2000 when a truck driven by Stuart Foy slammed into the back of her car on Interstate 40. Foy failed to slow the tractor-trailer, owned by KLLM Transport Services Inc., when vehicles began braking to avoid a mattress that had fallen off another truck.  Plaintiff attorneys argued that Foy should never have been employed by KLLM due to his record of reckless driving and several accidents.

We have handled similar cases in Georgia, collecting policy limits plus some, and this year we got a $2.3 million verdict against a trucking company for a badly broken leg. Unfortunately, the trucking companies that are the sloppiest about driving hiring, training and supervision are also the least diligent about maintaining more than the minimum required insurance coverage.

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