In a divorce, the laws of equitable distribution distinguish marital property from separate property. Technically, only marital property, that is, proper...
A recent $250 million wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of a Massachusetts family in connection with a fatal limousine accident in Connecticut has raised awareness about several serious issues that put everyone on the road at risk – uninsured limousine drivers, unsafe commercial trucking companies, the laws governing them, and who’s ultimately responsible for paying for such serious accidents.
“There were so many different things that went so wrong, and on so many levels that fundamental fairness requires extraordinary compensation,” said Mark E. Salomone of the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone.
The Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone filed the $250 million lawsuit on Aug. 14, 2024, in United States District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, on behalf of the surviving family members of Paula Garcia Franks.
The lawsuit was filed by Paula’s husband, Joe Bock, and names several defendants as being responsible for the death of the 52-year-old mother of three young children, ages 9, 13, and 15.
Paula was killed earlier in the year on January 9 at 2:40 am on Interstate 91 North near Exit 29-A in Hartford, Connecticut, while riding in a private shuttle hired to transport her from JFK Airport in New York to her family’s home in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Paula was returning from Spain, where she had been visiting family and looking forward to celebrating one of her daughter’s birthdays that day and her own birthday the next day. Instead, Paula died in a rear-end car accident when the 2015 Nissan Rogue she was riding in quickly decelerated and was hit from behind by a Freightliner tractor-trailer.
The lawsuit names Weihua Zou as the driver of the Nissan Rogue involved in the fatal limousine accident. Zou was employed by Elife Tech, Inc., which is also named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit.
While driving from JFK Airport in New York to Massachusetts, Zou was passing through Hartford, Connecticut, and driving in front of a tractor-trailer on Interstate 91 North. For unknown reasons, Zou’s Nissan Rogue “began to decelerate,” according to the lawsuit. The tractor-trailer then rear-ended Zou’s vehicle, killing Paula, who was riding in the back seat of the vehicle. Zou reportedly sustained minor injuries in the accident and was transported to a nearby hospital.
According to the lawsuit, Zou maintained no insurance coverage on the Nissan Rogue involved in the fatal accident. Additional investigation revealed that the Nissan Rogue had been involved in a serious crash less than 6 months before this tragic event and that the vehicle was declared a total loss.
Along with Zou, the $250 million wrongful death lawsuit filed in connection with the fatal limousine accident names several other defendants among the at-fault parties, including:
In the lawsuit filed by the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone in Springfield, the defendants are accused of more than 20 counts of negligence, conscious pain and suffering, wrongful death, and breach of contract.
Paula’s husband, Joe, believed he was hiring a licensed limousine driver from Albany, New York, who worked for Elife Tech, Inc., which operates Elife Limo. According to Elife Limo's website, this company promotes itself as providing “all kinds of service types: airport shuttles, bus rental, limo rental, pet transportation and more” throughout the world.
Instead, Joe later learned through the efforts of the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone that Elife Limo maintains a shell business address at 533 Airport Road in Burlingame, California. In addition, the company never responded to requests for more information from the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone and may not be insured.
According to the lawsuit, Joe claims that Daimler Trucks North America, its dispatcher, Ester Cargo of Illinois, and the owner of the truck, ASAP Logistics of Ohio, are also at fault for causing the accident and the death of Joe’s wife.
In particular, Freightliner announced in 2019 that improvements had been made to its Cascadia system involving the tractor-trailer’s cameras and radar. These systems allow the trucks to better identify pedestrians and other vehicles and automatically apply the truck’s brakes to prevent more serious collisions.
Odner was driving a 2024 Freightliner Cascadia, according to the lawsuit. However, Odner’s truck allegedly did not have such preventative safety technology. As a result, the tractor-trailer was “not reasonably safe,” according to the lawsuit.
In addition, Bock claims that the Freightliner that Odner was driving was “unfit and unsafe” to operate. The lawsuit also accuses Daimler Trucks North America of “breach of implied warranty of merchantability” due to the tractor-trailer being unsafe to drive.
Paula’s tragic accident illustrates the dangers people face every day due to limo drivers and transportation companies that ignore state and federal transportation laws. In particular, many private transportation company drivers do not have the required mandatory insurance to legally operate a private shuttle vehicle.
Limousine drivers and for-hire passenger carriers that engage in interstate commerce (meaning they transport people from one state to another) must register with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and must have a minimum amount of insurance.
The FMCSA minimum insurance requirement for passenger vehicles transporting less than 15 passengers is $1.5 million in coverage per vehicle. For-hire passenger carriers transporting 16 or more people from one state to another must have at least $5 million in coverage per vehicle.
Along with minimum standard insurance requirements, limousine drivers must abide by many other state and federal laws covering these commercial drivers and transportation companies in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
In Connecticut, private limousine drivers must have a Public Service Passenger License Endorsement (PSL) on top of their regular driver’s license. In New York and Massachusetts, limousine drivers must obtain a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) with a Passenger endorsement in order to legally operate a private shuttle vehicle.
The answer to this seemingly simple question is far more complicated than many people might expect. As the lawsuit filed against the at-fault parties illustrates, more than one defendant likely bears responsibility for causing the accident.
Ultimately, a courtroom jury will likely decide who the at-fault party is and how much money the defendant must pay in damages, the legal term for compensation for financial losses the at-fault party must pay for causing the wrongful act, which in this case, is a fatal limousine accident.
The Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone is an award-winning personal injury law firm in Massachusetts that has recovered more than $1 billion in settlements, awards, benefits, and verdicts for injury victims. For more information about the firm, visit www.marksalomone.com or call (800) WIN-WIN1 to schedule a free case evaluation at one of the law firm’s 10 offices located throughout the state.
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