HOUSTON - A two-vehicle crash in San Jacinto County in November 2011 is the subject of a Smith County man's federal lawsuit.
Recent court papers filed Sept. 4 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas claim Gerald Garrett Smith was a passenger in a vehicle that was rear-ended on US 59 North in Shepard on Nov. 9, 2011.
They assert the subject event occurred because a vehicle owned by Musson Pilot Service and driven by Little Rock, Ark., resident Meloney Musson failed to heed the height restrictions of a railroad trestle on the roadway and caused a truck traveling behind the parties to hit the 2010 Lincoln Mark truck carrying the plaintiff and his driver.
The company and Martha Musson, its namesake proprietor, as well as the employee driving the vehicle that met the trestle are defendants in the litigation.
Prior to the wreck, the respondents were escorting a truck belonging to EagleOne.
Said truck was purportedly too high to go under the 13-foot-7 trestle by at least 3 feet and was subsequently encumbered, the original petition says.
It further explains that Smith's driver was able to avoid a collision with the EagleOne truck, but the vehicle behind all of them "was unable to stop" and crashed into the back of the Mark.
Meloney Musson is faulted for:
- Failing to heed the low height warnings;
- Failing to keep a proper lookout for the EagleOne vehicle she was escorting;
- Failing to maintain proper driver attention;
- Failing to maintain the safe route of travel by deviating from the proper route and missing an exit; and
- Failing to stop and properly warn the EagleOne vehicle so that it would not be encumbered by the low height of the overpass.
Martha Musson and the business are blamed for employing and negligently entrusting one of their vehicles to Meloney Musson.
A jury trial is requested.
Attorney Blake C. Erskine of Erskine & McMahon LLP in Longview is representing Smith.
Case No. 4:13-CV-2593