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Trucker Who Rear Ended Trucker Awarded $1.1 Million

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Trucker Awarded $1.1 Million In the early morning hours of February 26, 2010, UPS driver George Reaves Jr., rear ended another truck on Interstate 70 in Effingham County, Illinois.

According to Reaves, truck driver Ilija Kuresevic stopped or almost stopped his truck in the roadway, causing Reaves to rear end the truck.

Reaves was then rear ended by another truck.

According to St. Louis Today, Reaves sustained serious injuries to the head, face, back and lost the tip of his tongue. Kuresevic suffered minor injuries.

“Honestly, it’s a miracle he’s still alive,” Sumner said.

As a result of the accident, Reaves lost his job with UPS.  Summers said UPS  “hung [Reaves] out to dry.”

Sumner said that UPS fired Reaves and “hung him out to dry,” after the crash.

Jurors awarded a total of $2.2 million to Reaves, including $1.5 million for pain and suffering, however, jurors found him 50 percent at fault for the collision. That judgement reduced the award to $1.1 million.

Sumner told St. Louis Today  that one of the biggest obstacles in trial was helping jurors get over a “rear-end bias,”  or the belief that “if you rear end someone then you’re at fault, or at least partially to blame.”

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