Semi trailer manufacturer hit with nuclear $462 million verdict following double fatality rear-end crash

A Missouri jury returned a massive verdict against trailer manufacturer Wabash National on Thursday.

On September 5, a St. Louis jury awarded $450 million in punitive damages and $12 million in compensatory damages in the case of Williams et al. v. Wabash.

Wabash was sued by victim’s family members in the wake of a crash that occurred in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, in 2019. A 47 year old was driving a tractor trailer north on I-55 when he slowed for construction. A Volkswagen passenger vehicle driven by Taron Tailor, 30, collided with the rear of the trailer.

Tailor and passenger, Nicolas Perkins, 23, died in the crash.

The lawsuit filed in the wake of the crash accused Wabash of equipping the trailer with an insufficient rear-impact guard to prevent under-ride crashes.

Wabash responded following the verdict, alleging that the crash occurred nearly twenty years after the trailer was manufactured. The company maintains that the trailer was “in compliance with all existing regulatory standards.”

“Additionally, despite precedent to the contrary, the jury was prevented from hearing critical evidence in the case, including that the driver’s blood alcohol level was over the legal limit at the time of the accident. The fact that neither the driver nor his passenger was wearing a seatbelt was also kept from the jury, even though plaintiffs argued both would have survived a 55-mile-per-hour collision had the vehicle not broken through the trailer’s rear impact guard,” Wabash said in a September 6 statement.

Wabash says it is evaluating legal options.

“While this was a tragic accident, we respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and firmly believe it is not supported by the facts or the law,” said Wabash’s General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer Kristin Glazner. “No rear impact guard or trailer safety technology has ever existed that would have made a difference here.”