Three Million Dollar Award in Fatal Bridge Crash

The family of a former nursery executive who was killed in an accident on the Champ Clark Bridge at Louisiana has been awarded three million dollars.

40-year-old Kyle Brown died on December 14, 2011. His vehicle hit logging equipment that fell off of a truck which struck part of the narrow, 86-year-old structure. Authorities said chains securing the logging equipment snapped.

The lawsuit was filed by Brown’s widow and their two sons, who live in Lake Saint Louis. Brown worked at Stark Brothers Nurseries in Louisiana.

The lawsuit claimed that truck driver Kenneth Davis Junior of Pleasant Hill Illinois was driving too fast for conditions and crossed into the oncoming lane.

The 86-year-old bridge is the oldest on the Mississippi River still used from auto traffic between Saint Paul and Saint Louis. It is on Missouri’s priority list for replacement.