Jury awards $6.8 million in suit against KLLM

A civil jury in Nashville TN has awarded $6.875 million to the family of Lindsey Garretson in a case against Vernon Sawyer Transportation, a subsidiary of KLLM Inc, Jackson MS. The jury found that Vernon Sawyer ignored company standards in hiring Stuart Foy, the driver of the truck involved in the accident that killed Garretson. Evidence showed that Foy had eight preventable accidents and six moving violation in the three years before he was hired by Vernon Sawyer. After hiring, he had two more minor accidents and four additional traffic citations before the fatal crash. A medical examiner testified that Garretson died of burns and smoke inhalation following the rear end crash rather than trauma inflicted by the impact.