Couple files wrongful-death suit after crash that killed unborn child

A Spokane couple has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against an Idaho trucking company and truck driver for an Aug. 7 crash that killed their unborn daughter.

Fatima Zukic was 35 weeks pregnant, about eight months, when her uterus was ruptured in a three-vehicle collision on U.S. Highway 191, about 27 miles south of Bozeman. Zukic’s fetus, named Ajla, was killed.

Zukic and her husband, Emir Zukic, seek unspecified damages from trucker Brian Sala and his Idaho Falls employer, Edwards Brothers Inc. They say Sala was high on marijuana when he overturned his 18-wheel beer truck in their path.

Sala, 50, has been charged in Gallatin County Justice Court with negligent endangerment and drug possession. A trial date on the misdemeanor counts is to be set later this month, according to Deputy County Attorney Eric Kitzmiller.

If convicted, Sala could get up to 11/2 years in the county jail and be fined up to $1,500.

Sala couldn’t be charged with negligent homicide because a fetus is not considered a person under Montana law.

Kitzmiller said in court documents that Sala was driving too fast when his northbound truck tipped onto its side and slid into the southbound lane on a right curve in Gallatin Canyon.

A Montana Highway Patrol trooper found a small amount of marijuana in the cab of Sala’s Kenworth, Kitzmiller charged.

Trooper Patrick McLaughlin reported that a Kia Sportage carrying the Zukics and two of their children and a Buick LeSabre carrying another couple both plowed into the truck.

McLaughlin told The Spokesman-Review that the LeSabre hit Sala’s truck first. Then, he said, the Zukics’ Sportage glanced off the LeSabre and struck the truck.

Fatima Zukic suffered a broken pelvis, and everyone else sustained minor injuries, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Traffic on the two-lane road was backed up for hours and nearly half of the beer in Sala’s refrigerated trailer spilled into the Gallatin River, requiring a two-day cleanup, the newspaper reported.

Edwards Brothers subsequently fired Sala, according to the Chronicle.

Kitzmiller said in court documents that another truck driver told Trooper McLaughlin that he was following Sala’s truck at 55 to 60 mph as they approached a turn marked 35 mph. The second truck driver told McLaughlin he slowed down for the turn, but Sala apparently didn’t.

Another motorist told McLaughlin she had been following a truck resembling Sala’s, which had been going too fast and attempting to pass vehicles unsafely shortly before she came upon the wreck.