Family of woman killed by flying tire on Middle Georgia highway sues trucking firm
The family of a Jones County woman who was killed in August when a wheel or tire spun off a tractor-trailer on Interstate 75 and smashed head-on into the SUV she was driving has sued the trucking company and the truck driver.
A negligent-death lawsuit, filed by the family of Jennifer Partee Thomas on Jan. 9 in federal court in Macon, seeks unspecified damages.
Thomas, 36, of Gray, was killed the afternoon of Aug. 11 while driving a 2016 Acura MDX with her mother in the front passenger seat and her father and son riding in the back.
The SUV was headed south on I-75 on the north side of Byron when a loose wheel or tire from a northbound 2003 Freightliner bounded across the freeway median and into Thomas’ windshield, the lawsuit states.
The impact fatally wounded Thomas, sending the SUV veering into a concrete barrier and, according to the lawsuit, injuring her passengers.
The lawsuit cites alleged “negligence” of the tractor-trailer’s driver, Yurien B. Chavez, 31, of Miami, Florida, for failure to, among other things, “properly inspect and maintain” the truck’s trailer.
The lawsuit claims that “by virtue of his negligence,” Chavez is liable for the “full value of the life of Jennifer Thomas” and for other alleged damages her family suffered both in the crash and by witnessing her death.
The tire or wheel that vaulted into Thomas’ vehicle was said to be one of two wheels that came off the truck at the time, though the lawsuit doesn’t specify what may have caused them to do so.
The Miami company that owns the truck, US Express Transport Corp., is also being sued by Thomas’ family on claims that it failed to properly maintain the trailer and is liable because it “owed a duty of care not to hire employees it knew or should have known posed a risk of harm to others.”
The lawsuit does not mention what those risk factors were.
Chavez, the driver, was jailed in Peach County in the days after Thomas’ death on charges that included second-degree vehicular homicide and operating an unsafe vehicle with allegedly defective tires.
According to the lawsuit, the trucking company and Chavez showed “a reckless disregard for the safety of others.”
An Atlanta attorney representing US Express Transport and Chavez did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 3:17 PM.