By Kevin Duffan, Virginia Trucking Injury Lawyer

Federal investigators will convene next week to determine the cause of the devastating truck crash that severely injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed one of his friends.

The National Transportation Safety Board plans to meet Aug. 11 at 10 AM in Washington, DC.

A Wal-Mart big rig smashed into the back of Morgan’s limo van in New Jersey in June 2014. Morgan’s friend died, and Morgan suffered broken bones and head trauma. Three other passengers had serious injuries, as well.

The early NTSB report released soon after the truck crash found that the truck driver was driving at 65 MPH, which was 20 MPH over the speed limit; the section of freeway was in a construction zone.

The truck driver was charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto in state court in New Jersey. The criminal complaint stated that the Wal-mart driver was driving without having slept for over 24 hours. Under New Jersey law, a driver can be charged with assault by auto if they knowingly operated any vehicle after being awake for more than 24 hours.

Morgan and his two surviving friends have settled out of court with Wal-Mart for an undisclosed sum. The company settled a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of the deceased friend for $10 million.

Our Virginia trucking injury company hopes that the cause of this accident is quickly determined, and such tragedies can be prevented in the future. There are strict regulations about how many hours truck drivers may work in a one week and one day period. It seems that those rules were violated here and tragedy resulted.

We have worked on many head trauma cases involving both trucks and cars, and they can be very difficult to heal. Some head trauma injury sufferers never fully recover all of their functions. We certainly wish Tracey Morgan a full and quick recovery.