$3 Million Settlement After Garbage Truck Runs Red Light, Kills Charlotte Driver
Won by Chandler Volta.
A commercial garbage truck driver ran a red light and struck a Charlotte resident's vehicle on November 30, 2022, causing fatal blunt force trauma; the estate recovered $3 million at the combined policy limits of the driver and waste company.
What happened
On the morning of November 30, 2022, a commercial garbage truck operated by Alexander True and owned by Active Waste Management, LLC was making a left turn at a Charlotte intersection. True ran the red light controlling his turn and drove the heavy vehicle into the path of the decedent's car. The collision was violent enough to cause blunt force trauma from which the decedent died shortly after impact.
The decedent was divorced and left behind two adult children. Economists engaged by the plaintiff calculated $1.2 million in lost future income attributable to the death, on top of $3,000 in funeral expenses. Because no conscious pain and suffering could be documented in the brief period between the crash and death, the damages case centered on the economic loss the family would carry going forward.
R. Michael Chandler of Chandler Volta Personal Injury Lawyers, working alongside co-counsel Michael J. Greene of Goodman, Carr, Laughrun, Levine and Greene, represented the estate. Economist J.C. Poindexter provided expert testimony supporting the income-loss projections. Defense counsel Christopher M. Kelly of Gallivan, White and Boyd represented the defendants.
Pre-suit mediation ended in an impasse, and the estate filed suit in Mecklenburg County Superior Court (Case No. 24CV003761-590). Before court-ordered mediation could proceed, the parties reached a time-limited settlement. Active Waste Management's insurer Integon Indemnity Corp. and the driver's carrier Everspan Indemnity Insurance Corp. together paid the full combined policy limits: $3 million.
The settlement was finalized on August 16, 2024.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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