North Carolina Jury Awards Plaintiffs $6M in Fatal Accident

A Mecklenburg, N.C., jury has awarded two families $6 million dollars after ruling against a Charlotte development company which didn’t install a traffic light at an intersection where a fatal accident occurred.

The unanimous verdict reached Friday after four days of deliberations found that the failure of Crescent Resources to install a promised traffic light at the intersection on N.C. 49 played a factor in the April 4, 2009 crash.

Last August, Carlene Atkinson of Lake Wylie, S.C., entered an Alford plea to three counts of involuntary manslaughter. Tyler Stasko was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in December 2011. Investigators say the two were involved in a street race at the time of the accident.

Three people died in the crash, including a Winthrop University professor.