Billings files additional lawsuit against manufacturer, leasing company

Two companies were named as defendants in a second wrongful death suit filed Oct. 13 by Thomas Billings, administrator of the estate of Susan Billings. The papers filed at the Alleghany County Clerk of Court Office stem from the death of 40-year-old Glade Valley resident Susan Billings, who was killed in an automobile accident on Nov. 22, 2004.

Named as defendants in the suit are National Semi Trailer Corporation and Parkdale Mills Inc., the latter better known locally as Magnolia Manufacturing. According to information on the lawsuit documents and from other accounts, Joseph Clarence Yancey III was driving a tractor-trailer loaded with waste cotton from the Magnolia plant on Pine Swamp Road when the accident that claimed the life of Susan Billings occurred. The accident happened on U.S. 21 in Wilkes County, not far south of the Alleghany County line. Yancey was found guilty of misdemeanor death by vehicle on July 21 in Wilkes District Court.

Yancey, then 50, was fined $100 and ordered to surrender his driver’s license for one year and will never again be able to obtain a commercial driver’s license to drive a tractor-trailer.

The Accident

The document detailed the course of events that led to Mrs. Billings’ death on U.S. 21 Nov. 22, 2004. It stated at the time of the accident, Billings, in a 1997 Chevrolet Blazer, was driving in a northerly direction toward Roaring Gap.

“At about the same place and time, Joseph Clarence Yancey III was operating a 1999 Freightliner commercial tractor truck, registered to and owned and operated by Terminal Trucking Company, Inc., the document read. “The truck was hauling a trailer...registered and owned by defendant National Semi and leased to and operated by defendant Parkdale Mills.”

The document continues, stating the location of the wreck as a two-lane paved highway with two double yellow lines in the center of the road.

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