Eleven months after five Georgia Southern University students were killed in a tragic accident on Interstate 16 in Bryan County, attorneys are still collecting evidence and questioning witnesses.

Caitlyn Baggett of Millen, Emily Clark of Powder Springs; Abbie DeLoach of Savannah; Morgan Bass of Leesburg and Catherine McKay Pittman of Alpharetta all lost their lives April 22, 2015 when a tractor trailer rig plowed into them as they sat in their vehicles in a line of traffic halted due to clean-up efforts from a previous wreck.

Fellow students Megan Richards of Loganville and Brittany McDaniel of Reidsville, who were passengers in two of the seven vehicles involved, survived.

Baggett, Clark and DeLoach’s families are represented by attorneys with the law firm Butler Wooten & Cheeley & Peak LLP of Atlanta in wrongful death lawsuits against U.S. Xpress Entities, the parent company of Total Transportation of Mississippi and its subsidiaries, as well as Graywolf Logistics Inc. out of Pooler.

Joseph A. Fried, of Fried, Rogers, Goldberg LLC of Atlanta represents the families of Bass and Pittman.

The driver of the truck that caused the crash, John Wayne Johnson of Shreveport, LA, was driving the semi owned by Total Transportation.

While attorneys with Butler Wooten & Cheeley & Peak did not return calls seeking comment this week, Fried said attorneys for all five families “are working together” and the cases are “still in the discovery and deposition stage.” No court date has been set, he said. ”We are all working together through the litigation process.”

Lawsuits filed last May

The families of the five victims filed the wrongful death lawsuits in May 2015. The suits also name as a defendant Robert Tayloe of Dublin, the truck driver charged in the first wreck that was the reason for stalled traffic on the interstate.

No one was injured in the first wreck, which occurred when Tayloe’s semi rammed the rear end of a motor home, causing both vehicles to flip and roll.

A few hours later, Johnson’s tractor trailer rig slammed into a car stopped in a line of traffic that was halted due to the first accident, causing a chain reaction involving seven vehicles, according to Georgia State Patrol reports.

The lawsuits state Johnson’s truck was equipped with a collision avoidance system that is supposed to give audible and visible warnings of objects in the truck’s path.

According to the lawsuits, Johnson’s truck was traveling at about 70 miles per hour and did not slow when it crashed into a Toyota Corolla occupied by Clark, Pittman and Baggett. A Ford Escape in front of the Corolla held DeLoach, Bass, Richards and McDaniel.

All were GSU nursing students traveling to their last clinical of the year in Savannah when the crash occurred.  

The lawsuits allege Johnson’s semi came “barreling down I-16 behind (the halted line of traffic) at full speed…without braking or maneuvering … and plowed straight into the rear of and then over the Toyota Corolla at highway speed, obliterating the Toyota and setting it ablaze.”

Johnson’s semi then hit and overturned the Ford Escape, knocking it off the roadway and causing the seven vehicle pileup also involving a second semi, causing all vehicles to “plow into each other.”

McDaniel and Bass were ejected, according to statements made in previous interviews by attorney Robert D. Cheeley.

Richards and McDaniel were severely injured and “watched their friends suffer and die,” the suits read.

Cheeley said the survivors witnessed the “explosion of the fuel tank (that) engulfed the Toyota.”

The lawsuits also list Tayloe as a defendant, claiming the accident involving his semi and an RV was caused by his “following too closely” when he hit the RV’s rear end and both vehicles rolled. The wreckage from that accident caused a traffic backup contributing to the fatal crash a few hours later, the lawsuits allege.

There was no bad weather, and conditions were clear, with nothing to obstruct Johnson’s view of the halted traffic, according to the suits.

Evidence in trucker’s cab

“Because he was drowsy or some other inexplicable reason, Johnson did not slow or stop…. never applied brakes, never made any maneuver to try to avoid a collision, before slamming into the rear of the Toyota at high speed. The tractor trailer actually went up and over the Toyota, slicing the roof off and setting it ablaze …” trapping the occupants, according to the lawsuits.

Fried confirmed Thursday reports that Johnson had a significant amount of pornography in his truck cab when the crash occurred. “We are unsure whether he was online at the time (of the collision),” he said. “There was a lot of porn in the truck. We don’t think he was actively texting at the time (of the wreck) but he had been earlier.”

Leigh Anne Battersby, spokesperson for US Xpress, said her company is represented by Mark Barber of Barber & Donelson, attorneys, in Atlanta and Weinberg-Wheeler attorneys in Atlanta. Calls to those law firms seeking comments were not returned Friday.

The lawsuits did not cite specific amounts sought in damages.

Herald reporter Holli Deal Saxon may be reached at (912) 489-9414.