Parents awarded $45M in lawsuit

Tractor-trailer crash killed son

The parents of a medical school student killed in a 2015 Pembroke Pines crash were awarded $45 million in damages.

After a three-week trial that concluded Thursday, jurors awarded Jennifer and Reginald Astaphan damages in connection with the death of their 29-year-old son, Jonathan Raymond Astaphan, of Dominica.

Ranger Construction Industries, of West Palm Beach, was ordered to pay $35 million in damages; Juan Calero, the driver of the tractor-trailer in the chain-reaction crash, was ordered to pay an additional $10,005,000.

Astaphan was killed May 28, 2015, along Interstate 75 near Pines Boulevard as he crossed paths with a flatbed tractortrailer hauling concrete barriers out of a construction area on the median. Calero blocked all of the highway’s lanes as Astaphan and other drivers approached.

The impact propelled Astaphan’s 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer and the truck about a quarter-mile down the highway, shearing off the Lancer’s roof, authorities said. Astaphan died at the scene. His pas-

senger, Patrissia Rolle, then 25, of Davie, survived.

As that collision happened, Liza Angulo, 17, struck the back of the flatbed truck, causing concrete barriers to fall on her 2013 BMW. The Miramar teen was instantly killed.

Moments later, a second tractor-trailer struck a fallen barrier wall and Calero’s trailer. Neither truck driver was hurt.

Stuart Ratzan, an attorney representing the Astaphan family, said the construction company failed to safely guide its vehicles out of construction areas and into lanes of traffic, causing the fatal crash. The jurors found Ranger and Calero’s negligence caused Astaphan’s death.

“You’ve got to care about human life. That was the purpose and the mission for us in this case,”Ratzan said.

Astaphan had planned to graduate from Ross University School of Medicine this year. He wanted to pursue a career in neurology, Ratzan said.

A statement from the construction firm Friday said the company was not responsible for the crash.

“This accident was caused by the actions of one individual who was not an employee of Ranger Construction,” said Michael Kennedy, the firm’s general counsel. “This verdict exemplifies the need for tort reform in our civil justice system, as it has been made clear that the jury would rather punish a corporation than hold the individual, who violated safety protocol, responsible for his own actions.”

According to the complaint, Calero was an employee of one of Ranger’s commercial trucking subcontractors. Calero’s attorney could not be reached for comment Friday.

Angulo’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, which remains pending in Broward court. Rolle settled a civil lawsuit in connection with the crash for an undisclosed amount.

Calero also faces charges of vehicular homicide and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury in connection with the crash. He pleaded not guilty last month.