A Jefferson County jury awarded $4.7 million Thursday to the family of a Texas Department of Transportation employee killed while doing roadwork in Southeast Texas.
The trial began Oct. 31 and was held in Judge Bob Wortham's 58th District Court.
Maria Granja claims her husband, Santos Granja, was killed on June 21 while performing work for the Texas Department of Transportation on Highway 73.
According to the complaint filed June 22 in Jefferson County District Court, defendant Sergio Munguia was driving a truck for defendants Best Transportation Services and Best Delivery when the tractor trailer collided into several vehicles performing work on the highway, causing Santos Granja's death.
The Beaumont Enterprise reported that Granja, 52, of Beaumont, was putting down reflective markers on Texas 73 near LaBelle Road when the driver of an 18-wheeler barreled into two trucks that were following Granja's work crew.
A total of four vehicles were involved in the collision. Granja, who was riding on a trailer attached to the first truck in the convoy, was killed. Three other employees on the convoy were injured and taken to the hospital.
The defendants are represented in part by attorney Kent Adams of the Houston law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.
Adam Terrell of Weller, Green, Toups and Terrell in Beaumont represents the plaintiff.
In another trial against TxDOT in June, Jefferson County jurors awarded $1.1 million to the children of a woman killed in an auto crash. They blamed the wreck on TxDOT's failure to keep the grass cut in the median, obstructing the view of oncoming traffic. (Case No. D183-372)
Case No. A187-120
David Yates contributed to this article.