Motorcycle riders sue following tractor-trailer collision

MARSHALL - A Texas couple has filed a lawsuit against a trucking company claiming that one of its employees failed to yield its tractor-trailer at a stop sign and collided into their motorcycle. 

Wayne Withers and Cathy Withers filed suit against Schneider National Carriers Inc. on Feb. 26 in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas.

The accident occurred on Oct. 4, 2011 as Wayne Withers was driving a 2007 Harley Davidson motorcycle traveling northbound on State Highway 135 in Gregg County.  An employee of the defendant, Richard E. Wallace Jr., was driving a 2006 Freightliner traveling eastbound on Wilkins Road and making a left-hand turn on SH 135. Wallace allegedly failed to yield the right of way at a stop sign and turned his vehicle directly into the path of the motorcycle, causing a collision.

The defendant is accused of negligence for making a left turn directly into the path of Wither’s vehicle, failing to keep a proper lookout for plaintiff’s safety, failing to turn the motor vehicle in an effort to avoid the collision, failing to apply the brakes in a timely and prudent manner, failing to maintain a clear and reasonable distance between plaintiffs’ motor vehicle and defendant’s motor vehicle and for operating the motor vehicle at a rate of speed which was greater than that would have been operated by a person of ordinary prudence under the same or similarly circumstances.

The defendant is also accused of negligence per se, negligent hiring and retention, gross negligence and malice.

The plaintiff is seeking an award of damages for medical expenses, physical pain and suffering, physical impairment, disfigurement, mental anguish, lost earning capacity, loss of earning capacity, exemplary damages, interest and court costs.

Withers are represented by Dallas attorney W. Cullen McMahon and Mark Edwards of The Edwards Law Firm in McAlester, Okla.

A jury trial is requested.

Case No. 2:13-cv-00180