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Jury Awards Family Of Teen Killed In Truck-Car Collision $4 M JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A St. Johns County jury returned to court on Thursday afternoon with a verdict in a lawsuit filed by a family who lost their teenage daughter in a fatal automobile collision, finding the teen and two companies partially at fault. Brooke Ladue, 17, was pulling out of a neighborhood and onto state Road 210 in June 2004 when an oncoming Mack truck collided with her car, killing her instantly. The Ladue family said their daughter never had a chance in the 2004 collision and sued the trucking company and construction companies, accusing both of negligence that lead to their daughter's death. The prosecution contended that Ladue would not have died if not for the negligence of several companies. The defense claimed the teen died in part because she never stopped for a stop sign. "Sometimes you just make a bad decision -- a mistake. In this case, Ladue made a bad decision," said defense attorney Michael Obringer. After about 11 hours of deliberating, the jury determined Ladue and the two companies were partially at fault. JB Coxwell Construction was found 25.5 percent at fault. Margie Woods Trucking was found 12 percent at fault. And Brooke Ladue was found 62.5 percent at fault in the collision that took her life. The jury awarded the Ladue family $4 million in damages.
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