$703,000 for Auto Death

$703,000 for Auto Death
September 23, 2002

Estate of Clark v. Able Network: A truck company's insurer paid $703,000 on Sept. 6 to the estate of a man who died of injuries from a rear-end collision.

William Clark, 40, of Dumont, was slowing for heavy traffic on Route 22 West in Scotch Plains on Nov. 7, 2001, when his car was struck by a produce truck owned by Able Network Inc of Bellmawr, according to the estate's lawyer, David Mazie, of Livingston.

The truck driver, Leon Truitt Jr. of Wilmington, Del., told police he could not stop in time, Mazie says. Clark suffered significant orthopedic injuries and died four days later at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Hospital in Newark.

Mazie submitted a claim to the trucker's carrier, AIG International Group Inc. of New York. The settlement represented the policy limits of $750,000 minus PIP and property damage payments made previously. No suit was filed.

Todd Holmes, an AIG claims officer, confirms the amount of the settlement.

-- By Henry Gottlieb