Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
All Content > Impact/Investigative > Northeast

Title of entry: 
The Verdict; How Much Was a Paving Contractor Really to Blame For a Deadly Road Accident in 2019?

Issue or Publication date:
Print: February 7/14, 2022

Publication name: 
Engineering News-Record

Publishing/parent company: 
BNP Media Inc.

View Website home page:
enr.com

About the Publication:

Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

A horrific auto accident in 2019 took the life of a 45-year-old Kentucky school counselor and mother, but was an asphalt paving contractor negligent and deserving of a jury's $74-million damage award against it? In this special investigation, ENR tells the story of a civil lawsuit that demonstrates how a construction company became the prime target in the hunt for a big payout in a case involving a violent head-on collision with multiple contributing causes. ENR first had to obtain "public" legal documents from an electronic docket in Kentucky available only to legal professionals and without the contractor’s cooperation. Once the legal record was in hand—over 100 documents and photos were reviewed—ENR combined it with police reports, a Youtube video, local news media reports, and data from state transportation departments that had tried to correct the hazard called "edge drop," which can lead to head-on collisions. What emerged was a compelling story of how attorneys for the family obscured the roles played by the driver of an uninsured truck and state transportation agency staff in order to portray the contractor as a profit-hungry corporation indifferent to public safety. The main narrative raises the question of whether justice and public safety are served by such a legal sleight-of-hand. Two sidebars help illuminate critical road safety issues and the skillful use of photography by ENR’s art staff helped dramatize and organize the presentation.

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