TxDOT, Others Face Negligence and Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Jane Watson of Fort Worth has filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), I-35 Tarrant County tollway operators and maintenance companies, and various trucking company owners and operators over a massive multi-fatality pileup on Interstate 35 in February that killed her husband, Aaron Watson. The lawsuit was filed in Tarrant County District Court by the surviving spouse and the couple’s adult child, Cameron Watson, and the youngest child.

According to the lawsuit, multiple defendants as well as individual motorists contributed to the chain-reaction crash. The lawsuit charges that the TxDOT and other private/public entities responsible for maintaining and operating the roadway failed to monitor and maintain the highway, failed to discover hazards or defects on the roadway, failed to de-ice and close the highway because of the conditions, and failed to monitor the weather.

The lawsuit also states that the tollway operator, maintenance companies and TxDOT were aware of the icy conditions because NTE Mobility had posted a message on a video billboard three miles from the crash site warning of the dangerous road conditions after an accident occurred earlier that morning.

Beaumont-based Provost Umphrey Law Firm attorneys J. Keith Hyde and D’Juana Parks represent the Watson family.