Family awarded nearly $4M for accident involving driver who stopped in middle of interstate
A family was awarded nearly $4M for the death of their 24-year-old son after an accident involving a truck driver who broke down in the middle of a Texas Interstate.
The accident happened back in September 2021, but court proceedings were not completed until July 2024.
24-year-old Robert Buntyn was driving home from his job at his family’s mortuary business when he collided with the back of a commercial vehicle stopped on Interstate 635 near State Highway 121 after hitting something in the road. Buntyn died as a result of the wreck.
Buntyn family attorneys say that the truck driver, 23-year-old Desiree Boyd, who was working for the trucking company Newkirk Logistics, failed to alert motorists that she was stopped and did not use hazard lights, flares, or triangles, or pull off to the side of the road.
The jury found Buntyn 10% at fault for the accident, and determined that Newkirk Logistics and Boyd were responsible for the remaining 90% of the accident. The Boys family was awarded $3.6 million in damages. Attorneys for Boyd and Newkirk say they plan to appeal the decision.
The Buntyn family says that Attorneys for Newkirk Logistics and Boyd forced them into a trial.
“We offered them six times to just settle for their insurance policy — we were looking at the full amount of $1 million. We didn’t want to put everybody through a trial, and they chose not to settle,” Bryan Buntyn told WFAA. “The insurance company and their attorneys had the same evidence we had presented. They looked at the same thing that we saw in court, and they still chose not to settle the case, which was incredible. And now they’re appealing it.”
“It felt like a dare — they didn’t care if you took them to trial,” Buntyn said. “These companies shouldn’t make families go through a two to three-year process just to settle a case and get accountability…. It was never about the money — it was about someone being held liable for what they did to him.”