Virginia medical transport driver faces second lawsuit in fatal crash
By Jim Greene
Published on November 09, 2005
A driver employed to transport Virginia Medicaid patients is facing a second wrongful death lawsuit over the deaths of three senior citizens in an April 8 crash that also led to criminal charges.
The latest suit, for $1.85 million, was filed last week by the sister of passenger Ray Cline Shifflett against driver Teri Ejjamai, her employer, Doukan Enterprises, Inc., and its parent company, LogistiCare Solutions LLC, of Atlanta.
The daughters of victim Hazel Collier accepted a settlement of more than $150,000 in their suit against Ejjamai and Doukan in July.
Ejjamai was also charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter in the car crash.
The current suit charges that Ejjamai was intoxicated and suffered from mental or emotional distress, and that Doukan management should have known that she was impaired and should not have dispatched her to transport the victims to the Jefferson Area Board for Aging senior center in Stanardsville.
According to the suit, Ejjamai was driving the company's Ford Taurus at an unsafe speed when it ran head on into a large tree stump.
Compensatory damages of $1.5 million are sought from the three defendants, in addition to $350,000 in punitive damages from Ejjamai and Doukan. LogistiCare officials said that Doukan and other local subcontractors are solely responsible for hiring their own workers, who are not employees of the parent company.
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