Houston Jury Awards $640,000 in Fatal Intersection Collision

In July 2010, a two-vehicle collision occurred at an intersection on Wilcrest Drive in Houston, Texas, resulting in the death of a 66-year-old retired passenger. The decedent was traveling northbound in a minivan when it broadsided an eastbound sedan. The passenger sustained fatal internal injuries and died en route to the hospital.

The decedent’s two adult sons, on behalf of themselves and the estate, filed a negligence lawsuit against the sedan’s driver and the minivan’s driver. They alleged the sedan driver ran a red light, failed to maintain a proper lookout, and failed to control speed. Alternatively, they alleged negligence on the part of the minivan driver, who later settled with the plaintiffs for an undisclosed amount before trial.

During the trial, the plaintiffs presented an accident reconstruction expert who testified about the intersection’s stoplight sequence, asserting the sedan’s green light was brief and vehicle-activated. The plaintiffs argued that if the sedan driver had seen the light turn green from a distance, it would have turned red before she reached the intersection. The defense, however, maintained that the sedan driver’s light was green and the minivan driver's was red. An independent eyewitness initially told authorities the minivan ran a red light, but later testified she could not see the light's color, a change the defense attributed to subsequent contact with the plaintiffs. The court allowed the witness's changed testimony but excluded her prior statements.

The jury ultimately found both drivers negligent. The sedan driver was assigned 80 percent of the responsibility, and the minivan driver 20 percent. The jury awarded the plaintiffs $640,000, which included damages for the estate's funeral expenses, the decedent's pain and anguish, and the sons' loss of companionship and mental anguish. Due to Texas's comparative responsibility laws, the sedan driver, being more than 50 percent responsible, was held liable for the entire award. The sedan driver appealed the judgment.