BEAUMONT - A district judge has issued a temporary restraining order to preserve evidence from the Jan. 10 18-wheeler crash that claimed the lives of a Southeast Texas couple.
Donald and Laura Blevins were killed when an 18-wheeler crossed through the concrete median on I-10, striking the couple's pickup head-on.
The crash closed both east and westbound Interstate 10 for several hours as law enforcement officers sifted through wreckage.
"This tragedy continues to underscore the lack of safety within the transportation industry,” said Paul “Chip Ferguson, founder of The Ferguson Law Firm and lead counsel for the Blevins family. “Yet again, another family has seen its life torn asunder and are left with the question of ‘why?’”
The Blevins are survived by four children and name Harmon's Automotive & Towing Company as the primary defendant in their suit.
“They came to us and have entrusted us with the duty and obligation to answer that question (of why),” Ferguson said. “As always, The Ferguson Law Firm will leave no stone unturned until we can answer that question for them. The preservation of the evidence, before the defendants have a chance to hide or destroy it, is the first step on that journey."
Judge Baylor Wortham, 136th District Court, granted the TRO on Jan. 13, court records show.
"While my clients were planning the funeral for their mother and father, the trucking company was hauling evidence out of Southeast Texas to be kept under its lock and key behind their fences,” Ferguson said. “We hope that no evidence has been destroyed or altered, and we obtained this order for this precise reason."
Ferguson will be working with co-counselor Beaumont attorney Curtis Soileau, and Ferguson Law Firm partners, Jane Leger and Larry C. Hunter.
The Ferguson Law Firm, headquartered in Beaumont, was recently recognized as being one of the best law firms in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
The plaintiffs in the case are: Clarrissa Wright and Wendy Blevins Scheurer individually and as representative of the estate of Donald Gene Blevins and Cynthia Renee Starnes and Angelia Michele Foreman individually and as representative of the estate of Laura Blevins.
Cause No. E-199474.