A law firm today announced that a wrongful death settlement was reached last week, awarding $3.2 million to plaintiff Na Zhang in a lawsuit previously filed in Riverside County Superior Court . The settlement stems from an incident that occurred in the early morning hours of October 19, 2009, when the plaintiff’s husband, Tangyuan Cao, 33, was stopped in the number one lane of westbound State Route 60, near Country Village Rd, in Riverside County, CA.  Cao’s disabled vehicle was struck from behind at approximately 100 MPH by the defendant’s company-provided pickup truck. As a result of the impact, Cao suffered multiple blunt force injuries and died at the scene of the collision.

According to the lawsuit, moments before the collision, other motorists and witnesses were able to take appropriate evasive action to avoid colliding with Cao’s disabled vehicle. The California Highway Patrol officer investigating the collision found the driver of the pickup truck that struck Cao’s vehicle to be the primary cause of the collision, and noted his violation of California Vehicle Code Section 22350, which states: “No person shall drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, the traffic on, and the surface and width of, the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property.”