Nearly two years after Barry Wyman of Woolwich was killed when a rental truck hit his car head-on, Wyman’s family filed a lawsuit against the truck’s driver and the company that rented out the truck.
On Friday, attorneys for the Wyman family filed a civil lawsuit in Sagadahoc Superior Court against the driver of the rental truck, William Young of Topsham, and against Penske Truck Leasing Company.
The family is suing Young for negligence, wrongful death and conscious pain and suffering. Penske is being sued for negligent entrustment, negligent leasing, wrongful death and conscious pain and suffering.
In the suit, Lewiston-based attorney Jim O’Connell with Berman & Simmons argues that Penske should not have rented the truck to Young due to what O’Connell called Young’s previous reckless driving record.
The suit states the Penske company failed to check Young’s extensive driving record that, at the time of the crash, listed incidents including speeding 86 mph in a 70 mph zone in February 2016 and being involved in a single-vehicle crash in November 2017. In that crash, Young “crossed the center line and continued to travel across the lane of opposing traffic and then 9 feet off the pavement before crashing into a light pole next to a pedestrian,” according to a Maine crash report cited in the legal document.
Young was also convicted of failure to stop for a police officer and driving to endanger in February 2019, and had his license suspended for two months because of the charges, according to the lawsuit.
In July 2019, Young, 55, was driving a GMC Penske cargo van north on Route 1 near the Taste of Maine restaurant when the van crossed the centerline and collided with Wyman’s southbound Subaru Forester, according to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.
“Young took no evasive action and made no attempts to avoid the collision with Mr. Wyman’s vehicle or the vehicle travelling behind Mr. Wyman,” the legal document reads. “The head-on impact of the leased Penske box truck operated by Young caused massive and painful physical injuries to Barry Wyman.”
The van then struck two other southbound vehicles — a Subaru Outback driven by Dorothy McCarren, 40, of Woolwich and a Subaru Legacy driven by Jacob Schwarz, 38, of Woolwich.
Wyman, 58, was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland in critical condition and died two weeks later from his injuries.
“Defendant Penske should reasonably have known the large box truck it leased to Young was a dangerous instrumentality capable of seriously injuring and killing other drivers on the road,” the suit reads. “Had Defendant Penske adequately vetted Young’s publicly available driving and criminal histories, it would not have rented the box truck to Young and Barry Wyman would not have been killed.”
Young, McCarren and Schwarz were taken to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, where they were treated and released.
Five months after the crash, a Sagadahoc County Grand Jury indicted Young on charges of manslaughter, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, driving to endanger and criminal speed. The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office arrested Young on a warrant following the indictment. Young was taken to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and released on $5,000 cash bail.
Sagadahoc County Chief Deputy Brett Strout said Tuesday Young’s case “is still in the (District Attorney Office’s) system and has not been resolved yet.”
Repeated efforts to reach Young’s lawyer, Roger Brunelle, and Penske’s lawyer, Michael Hayden, were unsuccessful.
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