UPS must pay $75M for MO crash caused by delivery driver with history of cocaine use

A United Parcel Service delivery driver who the company knew had a history of crack cocaine use ran a stop sign in Gladstone five years ago and crashed into an SUV driven by a pregnant woman, whose baby was born with permanent brain damage.

Based on that and other evidence presented at trial, a Clay County jury on Monday found that UPS should pay the family $65 million in damages as well as $10.3 million in past interest on the award.

The Accurso Law Firm of Kansas City represented Jodi Pannell, who was 13 weeks pregnant in May 2018 when a UPS package truck driven by Steven Ray Miller ran through a stop sign and slammed into her vehicle.

Both vehicles were totaled. Miller admitted under oath in the trial that he was speeding.

Pannell sought emergency medical treatment and began physical therapy. In October 2018, her son Kaelix was born with hypotonia, which is low muscle tone, and was later determined to have a permanent brain condition called schizencephaly.

UPS hired Miller, who is now 63 and living in Gladstone, as a package sorter in 2010 at the company’s distribution center in Kansas City, Kansas. Three years later he became a delivery driver. The company knew he had a history of illegal drug use. On his employment application he acknowledged that he had been charged with a felony and subsequently told company officials he had been charged with possession of crack cocaine, he testified.

Miller also said at trial that he had been absent from work on a number of occasions due to illegal drug use and that the company knew he had used crack cocaine in February 2018 and gone into a drug rehabilitation program. He completed that program on April 25 of that year and returned to his job as a driver on May 3.

Five days later, the wreck occurred and he was terminated. Despite Miller’s history of illegal drug use, the company did not test him for drugs after the crash, according to trial testimony.

Miller testified at trial that he never drove for UPS while under the influence of drugs. He acknowledged, however, that after crack cocaine use he would experience symptoms like a hangover where he wouldn’t be “as sharp.”

Miller acknowledged that when he used crack cocaine he would smoke it six to 10 times a day, according to the testimony of a substance abuse professional who conducted his assessment when he entered rehab.

A UPS spokesman said in an email that the company has not determined whether it will appeal the verdict and issued the following statement:

“We have apologized to the family and taken full responsibility for this unfortunate incident,” spokesman Matthew O’Connor wrote. “We want the family to be able to provide the ongoing therapy and support for their son, but medical professionals have said that the cause of the child’s Schizencephaly is unknown.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, schizencephaly is “an extremely rare developmental birth defect characterized by abnormal slits, or clefts, in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain.”

Babies with that condition have developmental delays in speech and language skills. Injuries to the brain during pregnancy can cause its onset, but so can genetics, infections and other things.