To secure the seven-figure agreement, we had to prove our client hadn’t been speeding at the time of the collision and that contractors bore responsibility for debris left in the roadway.
In May 2019, Cheryl Flanagan and her daughter, Kelly Barrett, had been driving along a two-lane stretch of GA. 53 in North Georgia’s Pickens County when the alleged negligence of road construction contractors resulted in the women sustaining serious injuries.
At the entrance to a sharp curve in the roadway, Ms. Flanagan suddenly and without warning encountered a large amount of gravel debris in the road covering both lanes. The debris caused Ms. Flanagan’s vehicle to lose traction, and Flanagan lost control of the vehicle. It went into a rotation and traveled into the north shoulder where it struck the embankment and overturned. During this violent crash, Ms. Flanagan was fully ejected from the vehicle suffering severe bodily injuries. Likewise, Ms. Barrett was also seriously injured but remained inside the truck.
The high-friction surface treatment (HFST) debris the women encountered had been “leftover” from roadway construction by Northwest Georgia Paving Inc. of Rome and DeAngelo Brothers of Lawrenceville.
One of the hurdles we faced was getting the defendants to accept responsibility. We spent a lot of time trying to pin down where the aggregate that caused the wreck came from. For months, both defendants denied it was theirs. Finally, we entered into a stipulation about the aggregate, where it came from and that it was used in the HFST application at the wreck location.
Before a settlement could be reached in the matter, we had to overcome one more obstacle. It was to prove that our client was not speeding at the time of the crash. There was a statement made by the driver’s daughter to an investigating State trooper at the scene which created concern speed may have played a role in the accident.
It was about Ms. Barrett telling her mom to slow down before they entered the curve where the wreck happened. We were able to get access to our client’s vehicle and download the black box data which proved that Ms. Flanagan was not speeding.”
Finally, by the end of 2022, Singleton Law Firm managed to secure a fair result for all parties with the $1.6 million settlement.
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