USPS Seeks Government Immunity in Lawsuit Filed by Family of Truck Accident Victim
USPS has been named in a lawsuit filed by the surviving family members of a deadly crash with a semi-truck that was working for the postal service. The June 2022 crash involved an uninsured semi-truck with faulty brakes driven by a truck driver who did not have a valid CDL. Five people were killed when the semi-truck crashed into their car at 70 mph as the family waited in traffic. The surviving family members have since filed a federal lawsuit over the deadly crash. The driver was sentenced to 11 years in prison earlier this year, but the lawsuit over the accident is still being sorted out.
USPS initially contracted with a trucking company that did business by the name of Caminantes. Caminantes then subcontracted the job to a company called Lucky 22, which was illegal. USPS has been named in the lawsuit filed by the family members. Since being cited in the lawsuit in August of 2024, USPS has filed a motion to dismiss on the grounds of government immunity and the fact that USPS was unaware of the illegal contracting.
According to lawyers representing USPS, “USPS did not know at the time of the accident that [the driver’s] medical certificate had expired, making his CDL invalid. Nor did USPS know that the truck was not covered by an insurance policy.”
According to an attorney representing the family, “In essence what we have is the US Postal Service saying, well yeah, we didn’t have a contract with this subcontractor, but we didn’t know about them. So, therefore, we shouldn’t be held responsible. There is no question that had the US Postal Service followed its own rules, that this truck would have never been allowed to enter the facility, let alone be loaded with mail and drive down the road. When you have people who shouldn’t even be driving and trucks that are unsafe and aren’t even insured, it’s causing an absolute horror. There’s no criminal accountability. For the family, they’re left with, yeah, this guy gets prosecuted, but everyone else is getting a free pass for everything that they did wrong that led to this guy even being allowed to be on the road.”
Lawyers for USPS argue that the contractor should be the one who is held accountable for maintaining the trucks, vetting the drivers, and operating legally.
Whether or not USPS can be held accountable for this accident remains to be seen. What we know, however, is that the contractor is responsible for the maintenance of their trucks and vetting their drivers. It often happens that truck accidents occur when the driver does not have a valid CDL. The company that hired the driver has a duty of care to ensure that their drivers can legally drive large semi-trucks.
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Levinson Law, P.C. represents the interests of plaintiffs in lawsuits filed against truck drivers and trucking companies. Call our Tulsa trucking accident lawyers today to schedule a consultation, and we can begin discussing your case right away.
