What Happened in This Case?

Early in the morning of March 26, 2022, Kirk Allen was walking home from work and was struck by a tractor-trailer at the intersection of Ernest Barrett Parkway and the I-75 North on-ramp. Kirk was dragged several feet by the tractor-trailer and sustained serious injuries to his legs. The tractor-trailer left the scene and continued onto the I-75. Ultimately, Kirk had both legs amputated above the knee. 

Other drivers found Kirk in the roadway and stopped to call the police and give medical assistance. There was no witness to the incident. No one knew the name of the trucking company or truck driver. The police report identified the incident as a hit and run with no information about who was involved. Kirk was unconscious in the hospital on a ventilator. His sister Judy called several lawyers from billboards and television, but no one would take the case because they didn’t think there was any way to identify the truck driver and trucking company. Finally, Judy talked with a family friend, Richard Samms, who was an immigration attorney. He reached out to Fried Goldberg and became our co-counsel on the case.

Once Fried Goldberg took on the case, we worked with our accident reconstruction experts and Cobb County police to try and locate any surveillance videos of the tractor-trailer. Traffic cameras from the morning of the collision revealed a potential tractor-trailer in the area, but the traffic camera nearest to the incident scene was not functioning. After reviewing footage from nearby cameras and local businesses, we were able to determine the company that operated the tractor-trailer. After we contacted the trucking company, they confirmed to us and the police that they had a driver in the area at the time of the incident. An inspection of this driver’s tractor-trailer revealed blood spatter on the wheel wells, linking it to Kirk’s incident. Further investigation by our attorneys and accident reconstruction experts confirmed Kirk had the traffic signal to give him the right of way to walk through the crosswalk.

In light of the severe, life-changing injuries Kirk suffered and the results of our investigation, the insurance companies for the tractor-trailer company had no alternative but to pay our policy limits demand of $21 million dollars soon after a lawsuit was filed.