MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas — The surviving children of a 73-year-old woman have been awarded $730 million in the single largest wrongful death verdict in the history of U.S. jurisprudence.
Toni Combest was killed on the White Oak bridge in Titus County near Mount Pleasant by a nearly 200,000-pound “Super-Load” on February 21, 2016.
"This verdict will send a message to the over-sized load and escort industries that they will be held accountable when they place profits over safety in a manner that leads to catastrophic events like the one that took the life of Mrs. Toni Combest," said the lead trial counsel, Brent Goudarzi.
The load, escorted by a front and back pilot escort vehicle, was carrying a top-secret piece of military equipment under the authority of Landstar Ranger, Inc the 8th largest trucking company in the nation.
Combest was driving between two church services when the lead pilot escort vehicle ran her off of the roadway as she was rounding the blind curve onto a small bridge.
On the bridge, Combest was faced with a tractor and load that was almost completely within her lane. The driver of the tractor was able to swerve his vehicle out of her lane, but he was not able to remove the 16’ wide load from her path before the load struck her vehicle and caused a violent explosion of debris.
The entire event was captured by the dash camera located in the rear escort vehicle.
“This verdict marks the end of a several-year prosecution that exposed the extreme dangers associated with the over-sized load and escort vehicle industries," Goudarzi said. "These dangers have, for years, been ignored and disregarded for the sake of profits that rise into the billions of dollars."
Landstar Ranger, Inc. settled less than one week prior to jury selection for $50 million. S&M Pilot Service, the employer of the rear escort driver, also settled just prior to trial for $1 million. The trial went forward against 2A Pilot Cars, the employer of the front escort vehicle.
