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Short v Marvin Keller Trucking - Jon Heck & David Scott - Webinar Hosted by Joe Fried

This case concerned a fatality trucking crash which occurred when the defendant’s semi-truck crossed the center median of Interstate 64 in eastern Kentucky and crashed into the plaintiff, Christopher Short. Chris was a 44-year-old husband and father of four children, two of whom were minors at the time of his death. The ten second video from defendant’s dashcam showed him slumping over to his left and losing control in the seconds before the collision. His hands never left the steering wheel. Defendants retained a Johns Hopkins pulmonologist, Dr. Phillip Buecher who reviewed the defendant driver’s medical records, DOT medical exams and the dashcam video and claimed the truck driver experienced “cough syncope” and, as such, suffered a sudden unforeseeable medial emergency.

During Plaintiff’s case we focused on the fact that three days before the collision the defendant driver went to his primary care provider with complaints of chronic fatigue, coughing until gagging and becoming dizzy, and lung congestion. He was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis, recurrent sinusitis and pink eye in both eyes. He was prescribed an antibiotic, steroid and albuterol inhaler. He was advised to take Nyquil and Benadryl. Based on the travel logs and deposition testimony we established that on the day of the collision the defendant driver started driving at 5:38 AM and made it all of 36 minutes before he had to pull off and take a thirty-minute nap. He began driving and stopped a second time 37 minutes later. During this stop the defendant driver testified that he got out of his truck and walked around and got some coffee. The total time for this second stop was 35 minutes. The defendant driver then drove two and half hours without other stop until he crossed over the median and killed Chris. Based on this information Plaintiff established the defendant likely fell asleep, as the truck driver was impaired by illness and fatigue. In addition. late discovery provided...

Jun 16, 2022 10:30 AM in Pacific Time (US and Canada)