According to court documents, Walmart claims Tracy Morgan, an actor and comedian who suffered critical injuries in a June accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, is in large part to blame for the injuries he suffered during the incident, which involved a semi-truck belonging to the big box retailer. In response to a personal injury lawsuit filed by Morgan in July, Walmart recently filed documents stating that neither Morgan nor the other passengers in Morgan’s limo bus were wearing seat belts at the time of the incident.
Morgan filed the lawsuit against Walmart in federal court, citing negligence. According to court documents, attorneys for Walmart assert that the injuries suffered by Morgan and his retinue were caused “in whole or in part” by their own failure to duly wear ‘an appropriate available seat belt restraint device.”
On June 7, a Walmart semi-truck purportedly rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter carrying Morgan and several of his associates on the New Jersey Turnpike. Morgan, 45, reportedly suffered broken ribs, a broken nose and a broken leg. Another man in the limo bus was killed due to injuries he suffered in the accident.
As this case illustrates, traffic accidents involving big rigs and other large trucks can wreak immense damage upon the property and people involved in them, oftentimes resulting in critical if not fatal injuries. When the people who suffer damages in connection with truck accidents have reason to believe that other parties’ actionable behavior, such as negligence, contributed to the accident, they may pursue civil action.
However, personal injury lawsuits are not easy to pursue. They can be complicated and highly contentious, as this particular case demonstrates. That is why retaining the counsel and representation of a personal injury attorney is crucial.
Source: NJ.com, “Wal-Mart: Tracy Morgan to blame for his crash injuries because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt“, Janelle Griffith and Thomas Zambito, September 29, 2014