Widow seeks $1.5M from trucking firm

BANGOR – A Houlton woman is seeking more than $1.5 million from a Millinocket trucking firm in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Penobscot County Superior Court.

Tina M. Jay has sued Emery Lee and Sons Inc. and its employee, Cleveland A. Richardson Jr., 48, of Wytopitlock, over the death of her husband in an accident on Jan. 5.

The trucking company and Richardson have not yet responded to the complaint, which was filed last month.

“This is an absolute tragedy,” Warren Silver, Jay’s Bangor attorney, said Thursday. “This was a nice young man with a good job, a nice wife and child, who was minding his own business on his way home from a work assignment. The result has been just catastrophic for this young woman and son.”

Tony Jay, 29, was driving north on Route 11 in Township 5 Range 9 north of Brownville when the accident occurred. Richardson was driving a loaded logging truck south. His truck crossed the centerline on a banked curve at about 3 p.m., according to the accident report filed with the complaint.

Richardson overcorrected, causing his “inadequately secured load of logs to shift and the truck to roll over onto its left side, spilling logs into the northerly lane of travel,” according to the complaint.

The logs fell onto the minivan operated by Tony Jay, crushing the vehicle and killing him.

The Maine State Police concluded that the crash was caused by driver inexperience. Richardson had been driving a log truck on public roads for only about five weeks. Before that, he had operated logging trucks primarily on a private road, according to a report dated March 2.

No charges were filed against Richardson.

Tony Jay worked full time as a computer technician for Community Pharmacy and part time for the Temple Theater. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a 4-year-old son, Ethan Jay.

The suit is seeking $1.1 million in lost wages and benefits, $400,000 in compensatory damages, an unspecified amount for pain and suffering, and reimbursement for funeral expenses.