Family Sues Driver, Trucking Company Over Accident That Killed Mom, 2 Kids
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The family of a Chicago woman and two children who were killed by a semi-trailer truck last week has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the driver and trucking company.
Elizabeth Peralta-Luna, 30, was walking hand-in-hand with her two children – 9-year-old Elizabeth and 4-year-old Dylan – in the 4300 block of South Ashland Avenue on Friday, when a truck making a left turn hit all three of them.
Witnesses said the truck driver had a green light as he turned from westbound 43rd onto southbound Ashland, and apparently did not see Peralta-Luna and her children as they headed to a bus stop.
Peralta-Luna's aunt, Maricela Ruiz, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the victims on Monday in Cook County Circuit Court. It names the truck driver, 23-year-old Zachary Barngrover, and the Monson & Sons trucking company as defendants.
The lawsuit claimed Barngrover, was using his cell phone at the time of the accident.
Barngrover was cited with failing to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk and making an improper left turn on a two-way road, police said.
Many trucks pass through the intersection of 43rd and Ashland each day, as they enter or exit the Stockyard Industrial Park, a group of warehouses and manufacturing plants in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
