2ND UPDATE, 9:48 AM: The National Transportation Safety Board has sided with comedian Tracy Morgan in placing the blame for a deadly highway crash squarely on a sleep-deprived Wal-Mart truck driver.
The 2014 accident left comic James “Jimmy Mack” McNair dead and Morgan severely injured after the semi truck smashed into the comics’ limo after cruising up to 20 mph over the speed limit.
Kevin Roper, the Georgia truck driver, who’d been awake for 28 hours, might have prevented the accident by slowing his vehicle to 45 mph, the posted limit along the stretch of New Jersey Turnpike then undergoing construction work. The truck had been traveling at 65 mph, but is thought to have hit Morgan’s limo at 47-53 mph.
In today’s report, the NTSB also noted that Morgan and the other passengers in the limo-van, were not wearing seat belts and had adjusted the vehicle’s headrests, contributing to the severity of injuries.
The truck’s impact set off a chain reaction involving six vehicles. The investigators had previously said that the crash highlighted safety issues involving driver fatigue and truck safety.
“One tragic aspect of roadway deaths is that so often they could have been prevented,” said NTSB Chairman Chris Hart. Roper had driven more than 800 miles from Georgia to a Delaware Wal-Mart distribution center prior to the crash.
McNair of Peekskill, N.Y., was killed instantly. Morgan, who remained in a coma for two weeks, suffered head trauma, a broken leg and broken ribs, and three other limo passengers were injured.
UPDATED, May 28: “Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan will sit down with Matt Lauer in his first television interview since the June 2014 car crash that left him critically injured,” NBC News announced this morning, one day after Morgan reached a settlement with Wal-Mart. ” The exclusive live in-studio interview will air Monday, June 1 on NBC’s Today. Morgan will be joined by his lawyer Benedict Morelli.”
PREVIOUSLY: Almost a year after the New Jersey turnpike crash that left the actor in the hospital and killed his friend and fellow comedian James McNair, the legal battle between Wal-Mart and Tracy Morgan is over. With no details made public, attorneys for the parties have come to a proposed confidential settlement, a filing federal court in the Garden State today revealed. “Wal-Mart did right by me and my family, and for my associates and their families,” said Morgan in a statement Wednesday. “I am grateful that the case was resolved amicably.”
A motion put before the court on Wednesday to seal certain documents referred to “confidential settlement negotiations and the confidential final settlement amounts” between Morgan’s camp and Wal-Mart.
“Our thoughts continue to go out to everyone that was involved in the accident,” said Wal-Mart U.S. CEO 
Greg Foran in a statement of his own today on the June 8, 2014 crash. The tragic incident saw the limo carrying the 30 Rock alum, McNair and two others struck by a Wal-Mart truck on the highway. McNair was killed almost instantly while Morgan suffered a head injury as well as a broken leg and various broken ribs.
On July 11 last year, Morgan sued the retail giant claiming that they were aware that tractor-trailer driver Kevin Roper had been up for over 24 hours straight when he smashed into their limo after falling asleep at the wheel of his vehicle. Wal-Mart reached a settlement with McNair’s children earlier this year. “While we know there is nothing that can change what happened, Wal-Mart has been committed to doing what’s right to help ensure the well-being of all of those who were impacted by the accident,” added Foran today.
Roper still faces criminal charges from the matter, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
David Sirotkin of NYC firm Morelli Alters Ratner LLP represented Morgan and other plaintiffs in the now seemingly settled matter with Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart Stores and Wal-Mart Transportation were represented by Jeffrey O’Hara and Laura Christine Fedyna of Newark firm LeClair Ryan.
Good for Tracy and everyone who was compensated. But if this now means we’ll never find out how awful the conditions are that drivers of these trucks go through, boo hiss.
probably the first time anyone ever accused walmart of ‘doing the right thing’
Like all large corporations, Walmart can do whatever it wants then just pay a fine. Disgusting.
Maybe you didn’t read the whole article, WalMart could have dragged the whole thing out for years, large corporations do that. Instead they did right and paid up. Slowly they are changing.
Walmart settled because if this would have gone to trial, Tracy and his friends would have gotten a lot more money from them.
Yes. This is the point of settlements. Hence…forgoing trial, and accepting damages without dragging on in the courts for years. If the compensation wasn’t sufficient, they would still be in court.
Sounds like the right thing to me.
They didn’t do right. They practically blamed the victim then paid out a settlement instead of getting dragged through an ugly legal process.
Except they didnt do this because it was the right thing for them to do they did it because because to drag it out would just lead to even more negative publicity for the company.
I don’t think Wal Mart or even their driver “wanted” this. Your comment is absurd. Their driver was negligent (perhaps even grossly negligent) but unfortunately these types of tragic events happen every day. If not monetary settlement how do you propose the victims be made whole?
The answer to that is simple: if they cared, they’d change their safety procedures for their truckers, not just pay to end a lawsuit.
No matter what safety procedures are put into place at Walmart or anywhere else, there will always be rogue employees who will do whatever the hell they want in order to either slack off or get the job done quicker.
By stopping the practices that led to this death.
What did you want to happen? Close all Walmart stores? Bet you shop there. Walmart employes alot of people.
He doesn’t deserve a penny.
@thinker bell : poor lil tink tink lol!!!
Wal-Mart wanted to put an end to all the bad publicity that could could lose them customers if it went to trial. Morgan is a celebrity with a lot of celebrity friends, and jurors’ verdicts tend to favor the famous.
Oh look at that… a giant corporation IGNORES THE RULES by having their driver stay up for 24 hours which then results in (can you believe it?!) an accident that KILLS a person and permanently ALTERS THE LIFE of another. THEN, they simply pay a huge lump of money, avoiding any thorough investigation into their trucking practices, and ultimately walk away scot-free so they can continue doing it. And somehow, by the way, this is the truck driver’s fault. Oh yes, they “did right”…. for no one but their bottom line.
I didn’t realize that Walmart had the driver stay up for 24 hours. I get your point about the lack of an investigation, but I don’t think anyone did this on purpose.
These businesses are a major blame. They put the drivers under enormous pressure to make deadlines.
Walmart has a tracking device in every truck. They know the 14 hour rule. They should have ping his tracking device and put him out of service, at end of his 11 hour drive . The independent OO has to follow FMC regulations. Corporation has NO standards.