FORT WORTH – A Fort Worth woman has filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation, I-35 Tarrant County tollway operators and maintenance companies, and various trucking company owners and operators over a massive multi-fatality pileup on Interstate 35 in February that killed her husband.
The lawsuit was filed on July 6th in Tarrant County District Court by Jane Watson and Cameron Watson, the surviving spouse and adult child of Aaron Watson and includes the youngest child.
Beaumont-based Provost Umphrey Law Firm attorneys J. Keith Hyde and D’Juana Parks represent the Watson family.
According to the lawsuit, multiple defendants, as well as individual motorists, contributed to the chain-reaction crash.
The lawsuit charges that the Texas Department of Transportation and other private and public entities responsible for maintaining and operating the interstate failed to monitor and maintain the highway, failed to discover hazards or defects on the roadway, failed to de-ice and close the highway because of the conditions, and failed to monitor the weather.
The lawsuit also states that the tollway operator, maintenance companies and TxDOT were aware of the icy conditions because NTE Mobility had posted a message on a video billboard three miles from the crash site warning of the dangerous road conditions after an accident occurred earlier that morning.
“This tragedy was 100 percent preventable had all of the parties named in this lawsuit done their part,” said Provost Umphrey Law Firm attorney J. Keith Hyde. “We should not be here today.”
Commercial trucking companies and individual drivers also named in the lawsuit are accused of failing to pay attention and maintain safe speeds, as well as failing to operate vehicles in a safe manner and failing to properly train driver employees.
The case is Jane Watson et al. vs. NTE Mobility Partners LLC et al. Case No.342-326366-21, in the Tarrant County District Court.