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Jury Awards $6.72 Million Verdict in 2008 Orange Crash That Killed New Haven Man

Jurors awarded a $6.72 million verdict Monday in a multi-crash accident in Orange in 2008, where the state was found to be partially at fault, one driver was severely injured and a young father from the city was killed.

The estate of Modesto Palafox-Munoz, 26, was awarded $4 million out of the total in a case that found William Clifford, the driver of a tractor-trailer who rear-ended a vehicle that caused a chain reaction collision, 70 percent liable and the state Department of Transportation 30 percent at fault.

The accident occurred at 7 a.m. at rush hour near Exit 41 on Interstate 95 southbound in Orange on Sept. 4, 2008.

Attorney Marisa Bellair of the law firm of Lynch, Traub, Keefe and Errante won the suit for Palafox-Munoz, while attorney Timothy Pothin of Stratton Faxon, won an $2.7 million award for his client, David Tremper of Texas.

Tremper was severely injured when his car was forced off the higway and into a bridge abutment near the Marsh Hill Road exit.

Bellair said a service patrol operator for the state DOT, whose job was to spot debris and keep the highway clear of obstructions, parked his vehicle partially on the shoulder and partially in the right lane of the highway. She said the debris, which was described as a four-foot muffler and tailpipe or a drive shaft, was scattered across the center and left lanes of the highway.

“In an ill-conceived plan, (the DOT) truck positioned itself in the only open lane of traffic,” Bellair said.

As the traffic moved to avoid hitting the DOT truck as well as the debris, the tractor-trailer driven by Clifford, first hit Tremper, then hit the car in which Palafox-Munoz was a back-seat passenger, pushing this vehicle into a Red Bobcat truck engine.

"We are very pleased that the jury carefully reviewed the evidence and held the state responsible for this totally preventable accident,” Pothin said. “The state could have settled this case for only a fraction of what it will be forced to pay Mr. Tremper for the carelessness of the DOT worker, however, there was no offer to settle this case.”

Attorney Ronald Williams Jr. said the state will appeal. He said Tremper’s share to be picked up by the state, if it is not overturned, will be $827,500, while the last proposal to settle by Pothin was for $1.6 million. Bellair said during the two-week trial before Judge Robin Wilson, the DOT driver was found to be unfamiliar with the department’s training manual.

“He re-routed traffic in an unsafe way,” Bellair said of the DOT worker who she said gave different testimony in court to what he said in depositions. She said the public needed more advance warning of the need to switch lanes.

“It was a very tragic heart-wrenching event and no amount of money can bring back Mr. Palafox-Munoz,” Bellair said. She said the jurors message to the state however, was “you can’t gamble with the safety of motorists on the highway.”