{"id":1701,"date":"2026-06-11T22:31:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:31:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:31:29","slug":"suit-filed-on-behalf-of-haitian-woman-killed-in-turnpike-crash-cites-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1701","title":{"rendered":"Suit filed on behalf of Haitian woman killed in Turnpike crash, cites Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><!-- --><!-- --><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Every day for the past 10 months, Angeline Daudin has waited for the telephone to ring so she could hear her mothers\u2019 voice.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1699\">Friends pledge millions to free ex-Rep. David Rivera. Judge will rule soon<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>That was their routine during their years of separation, Daudin said, as she attended school in the Dominican Republic and her mother, Faniola Joseph, lived first in Brazil after fleeing Haiti, and later in Indiana to support her.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe called me every day,\u201d Daudin, 22, said, describing her mother as her \u201ceverything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was the only one who did everything for me \u2014 paid for my studies, took care of me \u2014and now she\u2019s dead, leaving me all alone,\u201d the university student said through tears. \u201cThe loss of my mom is the worst thing God could have done to me. I\u2019ve lost all hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Joseph, 38, was among three Haitian immigrants killed on Aug. 12 in an accident on Florida\u2019s Turnpike when the minivan she and two others were traveling in was struck by a 53-foot tractor-trailer.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Authorities said the truck driver, Harjinder Singh, an undocumented immigrant with a Class A California commercial driver\u2019s license, was attempting an illegal U-turn at an \u201cofficial use only\u201d area of the Turnpike about 19 miles north of Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County when the minivan collided with the trailer and became lodged underneath it.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Singh, the suit says, \u201ccompletely blocked all northbound travel lanes of Florida\u2019s Turnpike at Mile Marker 171, creating an unavoidable barrier for approaching northbound traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Joseph was seated in the rear of the vehicle. The driver, Herby Dufresne, 30, and front-seat passenger Rodrigue Dor, 54, were also killed.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The fatal collision shocked South Florida\u2019s Haitian community and quickly entered the national debate over immigration and commercial truck driver licenses because of Singh\u2019s undocumented status and questions about his English proficiency.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Miami attorney Dax Bello filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in St. Lucie County on behalf of Joseph\u2019s estate, represented by Yaniel Cantelar. The suit seeks damages in excess of $75,000 under Florida\u2019s Wrongful Death Act.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>He is suing Singh, who is charged with three counts of vehicular homicide, along with his employer, White Hawk Carriers, the manager who hired him and freight broker C. H. Robinson. The complaint relies in part on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows state-law negligence claims against freight brokers over their selection of motor carriers. The Herald sent an email to C.H. Robinson seeking comment but had not received a reply by the time of publication.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Bellos said a chain of \u201ccascading failures\u201d led to Joseph\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>.\u201cA mother is gone because, as we allege, a series of companies put profit ahead of safety,\u201d Bello said. \u201cAn unqualified driver never should have been at the wheel of an 80,000-pound truck, the carrier never should have hired and dispatched him, and the broker never should have handed this load to a carrier like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1698\">Looking for a World Cup watch party in Miami? See list of free community events<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<h2>Supreme Court ruling opens door<\/h2>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The litigation is among the first wrongful-death suits in Florida to invoke the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s new broker-liability ruling, which allows injured families to hold brokers accountable following catastrophic trucking accidents.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>In a unanimous decision on May 14, 2026, the court concluded that federal law doesn\u2019t shield freight brokers from state-law claims.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a long time, these claims against brokers were not possible,\u201d Bello said. \u201cThe Supreme Court understood exactly what negligent selection claims against brokers are about.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Not all truck accidents can be prevented. But some can. Some carriers are known to be less safe; some truck drivers are known to be unfit,\u201d he added, quoting Justice Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s opinion. \u201cFreight brokers decide which motor carriers get put on the road. The moment they know they can be held accountable for choosing an unfit one, they\u2019ll stop handing loads to dangerous carriers just to save a buck, and those carriers will go out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Daudin said she didn\u2019t learn of her mother\u2019s death until three days later. After sending multiple unanswered text messages, she heard from her stepfather, who delivered the tragic news. \u201cI dropped my phone and went running. I was crazy,\u201d she said. \u201cBefore my mom died she called me and couldn\u2019t get me. She left a voice message for me&#8230;. It was her final words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Joseph\u2019s funeral took place in a South Miami-Dade church, along with Dufresne\u2019s. It was organized with help from the local Haitian consulate, and funded in part by Sikhs for Justice, which had pledged $100,000. Both were buried at Palms Woodlawn Cemetery in Naranja.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Daudin wasn\u2019t able to attend her mother\u2019s funeral and had to watch the service on YouTube. She wasn\u2019t able to see her mother\u2019s face, she said, because she had been badly disfigured.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like one day to be able to go see where she is buried and to place a flower at her grave,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Bello said Singh, an Indian-born Sikh, \u201cdid something flatly illegal,\u201c while the motor carrier should have never put him behind the wheel. C.H. Robinson, as one of the nation\u2019s largest freight brokers, also should have known better, he said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a company that size is going to be handing over the nation\u2019s freight to unsafe carriers like this one, then shame on them,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to see them in court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1697\">Companies pursuing a Miami-Dade incinerator throw up their hands (for now)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--]--><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Miami wrongful-death lawsuit invokes the 2026 Supreme Court broker-liability ruling after a tractor-trailer struck a minivan north of Fort Pierce, killing three Haitians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haiti"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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