Family of Officer David Colley Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit
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The family of Montgomery Police Officer David Colley, the policeman who was killed when his patrol car collided with an 18-wheeler, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against both the driver of the 18-wheeler and the trucking company he works for.
The lawsuit was filed Friday morning by attorney Jere Beasley, who is representing the Colley family. He claims the accident could have been avoided.
24-year-old David Colley was killed in early April when his patrol car collided with an 18-wheeler at the intersection of Narrow Lane Road and East South Boulevard.
“We hired an accident re-constructionist engineer who specializes in reconstructing the cause of an accident and in a thorough investigation, we found that number one, the truck driver was over his hours, over the allotted hours that the federal government mandates.”
Attorney Jere Beasley claims that not only was the truck driver fatigued, but that he made a wrong turn while trying to avoid Colley.
“The real problem was that the driver made the wrong move with his truck and he actually turned the wrong way and he actually went into the car rather than avoided the car.”
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency handled the wreck investigation and while a representative from ALEA tells us that troopers don’t determine fault, the accident report states that Colley ran a red light while attempting to turn left on East South Boulevard and failed to yield to the right of way of the truck driver.
In the report, the truck driver, who’s from Texas, told state troopers that when he saw Colley’s blue lights come on to his right…he was 75 to 100 feet from the intersection. He said he tried to stop…but was unable to avoid the collision.
But Beasley alleges the accident could have been avoided.
“We want to make sure the family is taken car of, the child, the widow.”
Alabama News Network did reach out to the truck driver’s attorney. He said he just received the claim and has not yet been able to look over it. We plan on reaching out to him again next week.
