WASHINGTON-A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against a North Carolina firm and its former driver who while reaching for a fallen cell phone, rammed his tractor trailer into the back of a school bus and killed a six-year-old girl in January.
No details on the confidential settlement were available. But an attorney involved in the lawsuit said the settlement with insurance companies of Mountaire Farms of North Carolina compensates Maria De Jesus Hernandez-Gutierrez for physical injuries and other suffering from the accident that killed her daughter Sheila.
The driver, Gary Garnett, pleaded no contest in state court in June to misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. Garnett was spared jail time, but lost his business driver’s license for a year and was put on probation for six months.
Next week, in a Mississippi state court, lawyers plan to formally respond to a $15 million lawsuit against a car dealer who is alleged to have been talking on his cell phone when he ran a stoplight and crashed into another vehicle, killing Gregory Warner. The lawsuit is filed by Warner’s wife, the mother of two minor children.
Crashes caused by drivers distracted by cell phone conversations have prompted some states and towns to ban the use of wireless handsets while driving, while permitting hands-free cellular calls.
However, a new report by the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies said hands-free laws-like those in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia-do not necessarily make the nation’s roads and highways safer. In addition, the study said previous studies overstate the impact of cell phones on driving by 36 percent.
The study’s authors did not return calls for comment on the study’s funding source.
