Judge Awards $1.6 Million in Kentucky Crash That Killed Infant

A federal judge has awarded $1.6 million to a family whose infant daughter was killed after an Army soldier hit their car, which was stopped along the side of the Western Kentucky Parkway in 2005.

U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley last Friday ordered the federal government to pay Aarron and Daryle Eaves of Central City and the estate of their 15-month-old daughter, Trinity. The judgment stems from an April 2, 2005 wreck in which Master Sgt. George Howton of McKenzie, Tenn., drove a government-owned car into the family’s vehicle.

At a bench trial in November, the government did not contest that Howton’s car struck the family or that negligence caused the wreck, but it did contest how fast Howton was driving.