A North Dakota woman is suing a truck driver and his company for millions following a fatal crash that claimed the lives of two of her children — in spite of the fact that state investigators said that the truck driver did nothing wrong.
Fargo resident Trista Curry recently filed a lawsuit against truck driver Michael Soyring and Pan-O-Gold Baking Company following a crash that occurred on an icy interstate in March 2018.
The crash occurred as Curry was driving with her three children in the vehicle on northbound I-29 near Grand Forks on the way to a family gathering.
According to reporting in the Grand Forks Herald, the weather conditions became icy on the interstate and Curry’s vehicle spun out and slid in front of the semi driven by Soyring.
North Dakota State Police said that Soyring braked and steered left to try to avoid the crash but couldn’t stop in time.
In the resulting two-vehicle crash, Curry’s nine year old and one year old sons were killed. Curry’s three year old daughter was seriously injured but survived. Curry herself sustained several serious injuries including broken ribs, a liver laceration, and a fractured arm.
Soyring wasn’t hurt in the crash.
Following the crash, the Grand Forks County States Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against either driver. Investigators found that Soyring was not distracted, that he was driving safely for conditions, and that his equipment was in good working order.
Investigators also said that there was no evidence of distracted driving from Curry and that the children were properly restrained in the vehicle.
Despite the findings of the States Attorney’s Office, Curry filed suit claiming that Soyring “failed to exercise extreme cautions by driving too fast for weather conditions and not managing a reasonable following distance for traffic ahead of him, which resulted in him crashing his tractor trailer into Krista’s car.”
The lawsuit also argues that Pan-O-Gold should have known about the inclement weather conditions and should have ordered Soyring off the road. It further accuses Pan-O-Gold of negligence for failing to equip the truck with “standard safety equipment that likely would have prevented the collision or aided in the prevention of the severity of the collision.”
The lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages.