courts:

Lawsuit filed in I-15 death of stranded honeymooners

Suit claims truck drivers and their employers were negligent in 2008 crash

Thursday, June 4, 2009 | 1:18 p.m.

Two charged in deaths of honeymooners on I-15 (2-4-09)

Crash location

Two trucking companies and their drivers are being sued over a 2008 accident on I-15 in Las Vegas in which two honeymooners outside their stranded vehicle were struck and killed.

Attorneys for the parents of one of the victims, Lisa Lynn Prock-Hills, filed a negligence suit this week in Clark County District Court against truck driver Stanislaw Masalski of Clearwater, Fla., and his company, Stan Trucking Inc.

Also sued were driver Sam Montalvo Martinez and his employer at the time of the accident, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. of Lowell, Ark.

Attempts to locate Masalski for comment were unsuccessful Thursday and J.B. Hunt officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The Nevada Highway Patrol said Kevin Edward Hills, 38, and Prock-Hills, 41, were killed on Interstate 15 just south of Silverado Ranch Boulevard on March 13, 2008.

The couple was on the right side of the road at about 5 a.m. trying to change a flat tire on their black Toyota Tacoma pickup, the NHP said.

The lawsuit said the vehicle had run out of gas, or had a flat tire, or both.

NHP investigators determined that Masalski, who was driving a semi-truck, hit Prock-Hills and then Hills.

Investigators said that Martinez, who was driving another semi-truck behind Masalski, struck the left side of the Toyota and ran over the couple.

Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene and the accident resulted in a seven-hour closure of northbound Interstate 15 from St. Rose Parkway to Silverado Ranch Boulevard so investigators could document the scene and clean it up.

Masalski told police he thought he had hit a bump in the road. After seeing nothing in his rearview mirror, he continued northbound.

When Masalski stopped at a truck stop near Las Vegas Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue, he discovered a woman’s black high-heel shoe behind the truck’s cab and other indications he had hit someone on the right side of the truck, court records show.

He then called police and the shoe was later matched with another shoe found at the accident scene.

Martinez told police he thought he ran over a pothole and continued driving.

Debris was found at the accident scene that matched the truck Martinez was driving, but Martinez told NHP investigators he did not know how those pieces ended up at the scene.

Masalski earlier this year was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and Martinez was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident and failure to maintain a travel lane.

The parents of Prock-Hills, James and Julie Prock, who live in California, say in their lawsuit that Prock-Hills was standing south of the stranded vehicle and was waving her arms or otherwise trying to communicate with oncoming traffic to warn of the presence of the couple and to seek assistance.

The suit alleges negligence on the part of the drivers and seeks punitive damages for their alleged failure to stop at the scene. It claims they failed to maintain safe distances from other vehicles, failed to pay proper attention, failed to stay in their lane and of driving too fast for the conditions at the time.

J.B. Hunt is accused of negligence in the hiring, training and supervision of its driver.

Discussion: 12 comments so far…

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By alohaseven

June 4, 2009

1:58 p.m.

Suggest removal

Being a truck driver for 30 years may I say that it is common knowledge that JB Hunt has the lowest hiring standards and very poorly trained drivers. They are basically the laughing stock of the industry. Although it could have happened to anyone, I was reading it in my head and thought it must have been a JB Hunt driver. Oops I hate when I am right.
By whats_in_the_box

June 4, 2009

5:44 p.m.

Suggest removal

These two lying scumbags, Malaski and Martinez. If they'd ran over a relative of mine and keep on rolling they'd be joining them in the afterlife.
By tsume

June 5, 2009

1:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

Malaski seems to have done the right thing. Have you ever driven an 18 wheeler? Run over a big pothole or a bike, it will feel like the same thing. He called the police as soon as he noticed, obviously not trying to run away.

Martinez seems to be the liar in this story.
By dollarbillz

June 5, 2009

7:47 p.m.

Suggest removal

Hummm....Malaski & Martinez...I'd be checking for more than just driver's license's, like maybe INS papers. Even our trucking industry is being overtaken by illegals. Just like everything else. STOP the amnesty....NOBAMA
By lastword

June 5, 2009

9:06 p.m.

Suggest removal

anyone with sense knows that you don't change a tire on the side of a freeway at 5 in the morning. that's 5am.

these truckers may have been speeding and may have been reckless but these two still should have kept driving until they go off the freeway especially if it was only a flat tire, if they ran out of gas then that is just plain stupid.
By Jess

June 5, 2009

9:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

A white Christian man killed my father. Should we ban them as well? Wake up dollarbillz..
By dollarbillz

June 5, 2009

10:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

JESS....I made a comment about illegals driving on our roads with no papers or at best false papers. Relegion was not even an issue. May your father rest in peace.
By stevem

June 6, 2009

2:39 a.m.

Suggest removal

this is why you never, ever change a tire on the highway. at the very least drive really slow until you get to the next off-ramp.
By fosimmons

June 6, 2009

6:15 a.m.

Suggest removal

The roads are very dangerous because some drivers think they can get away with anything and some drive 18 wheelers. Drivers have to learn to be patient and a lot more careful. This would not have happened had the drivers been alert and cautious. This was careless driving and lack of total attention to the road. Also cell phones and blackberries ... I just saw a woman fly through a red light talking on her cell phone and another woman punching her blackberry as her red light had turned green and she sat through it causing upheaval in the cars behind her. I biked around her, dashed her the finger and got as far away from her as I could. Folks, it is truly scary out there, but unfortunaltely we have to transport ourselves one way or another. Cops cannot be relied upon to catch all the evil doers because there are just too many. I went to my English racer for that very purpose. I get all over town much faster than I ever did in my 911. I keep two towels in my back pack and my neck tie and just towel off and tie up and off I go for whatever audit I have to conduct at a gaming site (not IRS by the way). I do not have auto insu. to pay either. Still, I have to be very, very in tune to my riding as it is deadly out there this day and age. Now we have to add GPS to the crazies who drive. If that's not completely nuts then what is? Are our legislature people nuts or what by not totally outlawing all this stuff when driving a vehicle? Oh, and some are even lighting up cigarettes, too ... man, cigarettes, cell phones, GPS .... Blackberries - if I were a cop they would pay when I saw one using one of those things going up and down the strip and I would let them have a good, sound lecture, tourists or no tourists. Someday the deaths and injuries will be so high in number that lawmakers will be forced into passing laws to protect us. This will happen only when one of the power brokers loses his daughter to one of the crazies, losing his wife won't do it as most of those lawmakers would most likely like to lose their wife. I am certainly not a perfect biker as I note these remarks. I do race through lines of cars in an illegal fashion and turn on reds without stopping and race up a sidewalk or two and all kinds of stuff, but I am so fast at getting to where I want without harming or endandering anyone that I never get so much as a nod from a cop. Drivers, wake up and devote your full attention to your task at hand so you don't end up running over people killing them like this truck driver who was just not paying attention. Also, my gasoline bill is zero and the year prior to going to my English racer I spent $780 on it. My blood pressure is back to normal, my weight is normal for my height at 5'9" and my cardio is excellent. All this because of something so simple as to a little bike riding. Period.
By vegasj

June 6, 2009

7:09 a.m.

Suggest removal

I hate truckers a bikers, they think they own the roads!!
By annienonymouse

June 6, 2009

7:24 a.m.

Suggest removal

"I hate truckers a bikers, they think they own the roads!!"

Don't forget the bus drivers. Oh, and don't forget all the rest of the drivers on the road.
By homer

June 6, 2009

11:39 a.m.

Suggest removal

dollarbillz, You should be thanking Bush and McCain for your problem with amnesty. They allowed what was once a twenty five mile area of the border to be amended to all of America and Canada for foreign trucking companies,equipment and drivers.