On Feb. 12, 2023, a Postal Service van traveling southbound on Olsak Road flew into the intersection with FM 765 near San Angelo without stopping or yielding and struck the passenger side of the Alexandria Nieto’s vehicle, sending it airborne. Ms. Nieto and her 14-year-old daughter were ejected through the windshield. Her daughter’s friend was trapped inside the overturned vehicle for approximately 45 minutes and had to be extracted by firefighters using hydraulic rescue tools. All three suffered serious, life-altering injuries, including traumatic brain injuries, multiple fractures, and permanent scarring.
The Postal Service argued that a missing stop sign and the failure to wear seatbelts were the cause of the plaintiffs’ injuries.
Mr. Alsaffar stated: “It was shocking how careless and dangerous the Postal Service’s driver was acting that day. Yet the government spent three years pointing the finger at anyone but themselves. The Court rightly rejected this attempt to avoid responsibility and made sure the the government was held accountable for the harm they caused.”
Mr. Jacob stated: “This case was never complicated. The postal van entered a highway intersection at 41 miles per hour. The driver did not slow down. She did not brake. She did not even look left or right. Everything the government argued after that was an effort to shift the blame somewhere else. But a distracted driver is a dangerous driver.”
The court’s judgment compensates the families for past and future medical expenses, physical pain and mental anguish, and disfigurement. In its ruling, the court rejected the government’s defenses and found that the events of Feb. 12, 2023, were entirely avoidable, concluding that had the driver done the bare minimum required of any reasonable driver, she would have paid attention to the road.
