The suit refers to a crash on April 1, when the Ohio State Highway Patrol said that Hughes first rear-ended a driver on Interstate 70 then fled from the crash at high speed onto Airport Access Road, then onto Terminal Road, where he crashed into a minivan that was turning left onto Terminal Road.
The minivan contained five employees with Enterprise Mobility, including Turnbull, 66; Larry Edwards, 77; Stephen Cassel, 72; and Richard Coatney, 77, all four of whom died after the crash. The final person from the minivan suffered serious injuries and was taken to Miami Valley Hospital.
Hughes sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Kettering Health Dayton, the highway patrol said.
The highway patrol at the time said they believed that impairment was a factor in the crashes, and in a crash report OSHP said that a blood test found Hughes had a blood alcohol content of 0.224. The legal limit for driving in Ohio is 0.08.
Criminal charges have not yet been filed against Hughes.
In all, Turnbull’s family asked for $20 million in compensatory damages and $25,000 in punitive damages against Hughes and the company that employed him.
Hughes and Benchmark Industrial have both filed responses denying the allegations in the complaint and asking that the case be dismissed.
In a request to reschedule a pretrial hearing, Hughes’ attorney said that representatives of the other three people who died in the crash had also hired lawyers and may be considering filing their own lawsuits, which could be joined with this one.
About the Author
