Joseph Fried, left, and Ashley Winsky deliver their opening statements at trial against a trucking company and its driver over the death of a Virginia teenager. Watch the trial.
Newport News, VA— Attorneys Thursday debated what caused the multi-vehicle crash that killed a 17-year old, as trial opened against a trucking company whose big rig was involved in the wreck. Etheridge, et al. v. USA Truck, LLC, et al., CL2304235H00.
Keon Couch died from injuries he suffered in a March 2023 collision on Jefferson Avenue in Newport News, Virginia. Couch’s family contends the fatal crash was caused by an illegally parked tractor-trailer owned by USA Truck, and operated by one of the company’s drivers, Leonard Couplin.
Couplin parked the big rig in the street and left it unattended while in a fast food restaurant. The trucking company admits its vehicle was improperly parked, but contends that did not cause the ultimate crash, which turns the focus of the trial to causation and possible damages, including whether Couplin’s conduct warrants an award of punitives.
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During Thursday’s openings, Fried Goldberg’s Joseph Fried, representing Couch’s family, walked jurors through evidence he said would show the parked truck, in the right lane of the roadway, caused the deadly collision. Fried said Couch was a passenger in a car driven by Carlos Palmer, which careened into the parked tractor-trailer after striking two other vehicles, including a Ford F-150 pickup that had stopped behind the big rig, and an Acura Infiniti in the middle lane.
Fried said that Couplin not only parked the truck in the street illegally and left it unattended, he compounded that misconduct by failing to place reflective safety triangles around the vehicle to warn other drivers of the stoppage, all while leaving the vehicle in that lane for more than 20 minutes. And he said Couplin’s claimed reason for stopping the truck, to use the restroom, did not absolve him from blame, particularly since he had been safely parked nearby, minutes before leaving the vehicle in the roadway.
“Mr. Couplin could have avoided this whole thing by staying parked where he was safely parked for four hours, just four minutes before he parked in front of the [fast food restaurant],” Fried said.
But the defense contends Palmer's driving, and not the parked big rig, actually caused the crash. In her opening Thursday, Moran Reeves Conn’s Ashley Winsky said area surveillance cameras showed Palmer, driving with a learner’s permit, was traveling faster than surrounding traffic before the crash. She added that he had been traveling close behind the Acura Infiniti in the middle lane of traffic, then moved into the right lane to attempt to pass, striking the F-150 that had been stopped roughly 90 feet behind the tractor-trailer. She said the teen's car then struck the Infiniti before ultimately hitting the big rig.
Winsky added that the tractor-trailer had its hazard lights on at the time of the crash, and the drivers of both the F-150 and Infiniti were aware the truck was stopped.
“The only proximate cause of this accident was the negligent conduct of Carlos Palmer,” Winksy said. “He made a lane change when his whole view was blocked, and he was driving faster than other traffic.”
Palmer, while named as a defendant in the initial complaint, is not a defendant at trial.
Trial is expected to last through next week.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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