- SpaceX has been cleared over a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a crash victim’s family.
- The family sued the firm for $20 million after Carlos Venegas was killed in July 2020.
- The rocket builder refuted responsibility because it happened off company property.
SpaceX was cleared over a wrongful death lawsuit issued by the car crash victim’s family.
Bloomberg and other news outlets first reported the news.
The family of Carlos Venegas, who died in a car crash in July 2020, sued the firm for $20 million.
Venegas’s wife and three children were also in the car when it slammed into the back of an 18-wheeler delivering supplies to a South Texas rocket facility. The family sued for negligence.
According to Bloomberg, US magistrate Judge Ronald Morgan said in his recommendations to dismiss the suit that the landowner — in this case, SpaceX — exercised no control over an independent contractor and suggested that the company would have no reason to doubt the contractor’s competence to perform his duties.
SpaceX denied responsibility for the accident, saying it happened off company property. Neither SpaceX vehicles nor employees were involved, Bloomberg reported.
Tony Buzbee, the complainant’s lawyer, said the firm should have warned beachgoers there could be trucks stopped on the unlit highway and ensured better safety lightning and warning systems for truck drivers, per Bloomberg.
Venegas’ lawyer and SpaceX did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
The complaint was dismissed on Wednesday by US District Judge Fernando Rodriguex Jr. in Brownsville, Texas.
Insider’s Kate Duffy reported on Wednesday that a woman had been arrested after being accused of spray-painting anti-SpaceX graffiti on a mural paid for by Elon Musk’s foundation.
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