Wal-Mart claims a lack of seatbelts was at fault for the injuries and death in June 7 accident, not their tractor trailer driver.
A Wal-Mart tractor trailer going 65 miles per hour hit 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan’s limo on June 7, killing comedian James McNair and severely injuring Morgan and two other passengers in his vehicle. In court filings on Monday, the retail giant refused to accept full blame for the tragic accident, and instead claimed that the death and injuries were the fault of Morgan and his fellow passengers.
The Wal-Mart driver, Kevin Roper, was charged with vehicular homicide and assault by auto after the June 7 accident, and according to details revealed in court Monday, he “never braked, never swerved” before hitting Morgan’s limo “in the rear going 65 miles per hour.” Despite this, Wal-Mart stated that McNair’s death and injuries suffered by Morgan and his passengers, Jeffrey Millea and Ardley Fuqua, “were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs’ failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt device.”
“They want to play hardball? I invented it. Bring it,” Morgan’s lawyer Benedict Morelli told the Daily News. “They won’t admit the driver works for them or that he’s a truck driver. They say publicly if we were involved in this accident we will take full responsibility and then they won’t even admit Roper’s their driver. . . It’s despicable. They know they caused this accident. Seatbelts had nothing to do with it.”
Morelli went on to say that placing blame on Morgan for the accident was an extremely low blow, as his client has been getting psychiatric help to deal with his guilt over the accident.
“He’s so upset. One of his friends died in the accident. He hasn’t gotten over that. Jeff was his assistant. Artie was his opening act. They were there because of him. He feels responsible for these people. He’s struggling every day, fighting hard just to get incrementally better, and they hit him with this.”
However, despite his guilt, even Morgan refuses to accept Wal-Mart’s blame-the-victims defense.
“After I heard what Wal-Mart said in court I felt I had to speak out. I can’t believe Wal-Mart is blaming me for an accident that they caused. My friends and I were doing nothing wrong,” said the comedian in a statement released Tuesday.
Morelli has revealed that it is unclear whether Morgan will be able to resume his stand-up career, as he and the other two injured passengers still need to undergo more surgeries and several more hours of rehab treatment, which includes speech therapy and cognitive therapy.
“He’s been offered his own show, a movie — he can’t do any of those things. He spends hours and hours a day in rehab, struggling and fighting to get better. It can’t even be assessed, what the outcome is going to be.”
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