More families have entered wrongful death lawsuits against Total Transportation of Mississippi and U.S. Xpress -- Total Transportation's parent company -- after the fatal April 22 wreck in Bryan County, Ga., that resulted in the deaths of five Georgia Southern University nursing students.
The families of Caitlyn Nicole Baggett, Emily Elizabeth Clark and Abbie Lorene DeLoach -- all three killed as a result of an early morning fiery crash -- entered suits in Bryan County Superior Court and State Court on Tuesday.
Megan Rebecca Richards, who was involved in the wreck and survived, also filed suit against the trucking companies.
In a news release announcing the lawsuits, attorneys for the deceased nursing students also named the Total Transportation driver, John Wayne Johnson of Louisiana, as a defendant. Johnson allegedly rammed the students' vehicles while traveling east on Interstate 16 toward Savannah, Ga. on April 22.
A truck sits parked outside of the U.S. Xpress Enterprises building in Chattanooga in this 2011 file photoU.S. Xpress representatives say they can't comment on the pending lawsuits, but reaffirmed their earlier statement that "our primary concern is with the victims and their families."
"Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this tragedy," said Natalie Parker, U.S. Xpress spokeswoman.
The latest release detailing the new wrongful death suits alleges that Johnson was going around 70 miles per hour when he came up on stopped traffic. Earlier police reports indicated that traffic was stopped while authorities cleared a prior accident.
Johnson is accused of hitting the Toyota Corolla occupied by Emily Clark, Caitlyn Baggett and McKay Pittman from behind, which resulted in the Corolla smashing into the Ford Escape occupied by Abbie DeLoach, Brittney McDaniel, Morgan Bass and Megan Richards in front of it.
An earlier suit filed by Abbie DeLoach's family specifically states that DeLoach was a passenger at the time of the wreck. However, this week's news release filed on behalf of the families specifies that DeLoach was driving the Escape at the time of the accident and was trapped in the vehicle for hours before being rescued and succumbing later to her injuries.
The Escape either way reportedly smashed into the rear of a fuel tanker and flipped several times, throwing two of its occupants and forcing the fuel tanker off the road. A fuel tank explosion reportedly engulfed the Toyota.
A total of seven vehicles were involved in the wreck. A Georgia State Police investigation is ongoing.
In the meantime, the families of the deceased have gone on the offensive with the suits filed this week.
"It is a senseless and horrible loss of Georgia's best and brightest young women," said Bob Cheely, partner at Georgia-based Butler Wooten Cheely and Peak law firm, and lead counsel in the four suits.
Cheely said the legal team intends "to thoroughly investigate the hiring practices of Total Transportation and its parent company, [U.S. Xpress], to understand why Defendant Johnson did not see the long line of traffic with brake lights shining in the darkness just before 6 a.m."
And "our clients are deeply disturbed over the facts of this wreck and they are demanding justice for the innocent blood which was shed on the roadway that morning," he said.
Brandon Peak, another partner at Butler Wooten Cheely and Peak, called the wreck "every parent's worst nightmare."
"These young women were on their way to their final clinical rotations at a Savannah hospital and they never had a chance with an out-of-control 18-wheeler barreling down on them from behind," he said.
In addition to U.S. Xpress and a handful of its subsidiary companies, the families are also suing New Mountain Lake Holdings, LLC and Mountain Lake Risk Retention Group, Inc. -- U.S. Xpress' and Total Transportation's insurance firms -- and Greywolf Logistics, Inc., a Georgia trucking company, as well as Greywolf driver Robert Gordon.
It was Gordon, working for Greywolf, who was reportedly involved in the wreck that had traffic slowed to a stop on the interstate the morning of the wreck.
The families of the deceased nursing students claim "that these defendants were negligent in causing the first wreck earlier that morning," according to the lawsuit news release.
The families are seeking the full value of the deceased students' lives.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.