Million-Dollar Lawsuit in Post

On behalf of Garza County, Texas Deputy Sheriff Charlie Evans, struck by a “box truck” and “severely injured” on 4 February 2014 on United States Highway 84 a few miles from the City of Post, the Lubbock law firm Glasheen, Valles & Inderman filed on 24 February 2014 in the Garza County District Court in Post a $1-million lawsuit for compensatory damages, the Amarillo Globe-News has reported. According to the report, Deputy Evans was “assisting at the scene” of a collision involving a “big rig” trying to extricate its driver from the cab when another driver, Arnold Ukawilu of Dallas, approaching from the south, “lost control” of the box truck, which then slid across the icy road surface into the median area of the divided highway, running down and injuring Evans and three others helping him, one of whom died at the scene. The University Medical Center in Lubbock treated Evans and the other two survivors for their injuries.

The Globe-News report says the lawsuit alleges “negligence and gross negligence” generally as proximate causes of the injuries but does not indicate whether the lawsuit alleges either impairment, inattention, or any other specific fault or failure as a factor. It is not unusual, however, for the sight of an accident scene to distract morbidly curious drivers passing by and cause them to lose control of their vehicles and sometimes find themselves as additional parties to the accidents. Nor does the report describe the injuries Evans has sustained except to say that his claim against defendants Ukawilu and John Christner Trucking, an Oklahoma company that did not respond to a Globe-News inquiry for comment, alleges “pain and suffering, future physical impairment, disfigurement, and lost future earnings” as unspecified effects. From the report, there is no apparent allegation of permanent disability.

The Globe-News report characterized the weather at the two-collision scene as “blast[ing] the region with snow, ice, and subfreezing temperatures,” driving hazards that require full-time concentration on and attention to road conditions to prevent sudden mishaps.