Couple perishes when vehicle is hit by truck entering intersection
Attorneys for plaintiff: Elliott Buckner, Joseph Cantor and Jeffrey Stedman, Richmond
Case summary: A husband and wife, both in their mid-70s, were attempting to turn left onto a multi-lane roadway in a heavily traveled commercial corridor. The defendant was operating his employer’s large truck in the middle lane of the multi-lane roadway when his vehicle entered the intersection and hit the decedents’ vehicle.
The defendant insisted that he entered the intersection under a yellow light, but his passenger testified that the light turned red just before the truck crossed the stop bar.
The wife died within hours; the husband died the following day.
The couple had a blended family with two statutory beneficiaries on the husband’s case and three statutory beneficiaries on the wife’s case.
The beneficiaries agreed that despite there being two separate cases with different beneficiaries in each case they wished to have any recovery split evenly amongst them, which was accomplished via a global mediation of both cases.
