'Burned alive for over 90 minutes': Runaway tractor-trailer with driver asleep at the wheel crashed into family's home, lawsuit says

The aftermath of a tractor-trailer crash in Erwin, Tenn. (YouTube/WJHL). Inset from left to right: Arwinder Singh, Jaswinder Kaur, and Kirandeep Kaur (GoFundMe).

A family is without a mother and sister — and still reeling from a brother’s critical injuries — after a runaway tractor-trailer crashed into and destroyed their home, a federal lawsuit filed in Tennessee alleges.

On July 2, 2023, a commercial Freightliner was pulling a Utility Box Trailer — heading west on I-26 near Exit 36 in Erwin when a series of disasters unfolded. Robenson Vertus, a Connecticut resident, was behind the wheel at the time and under the employ of FFE Transportation Services, a Texas company, according to the lawsuit .

Sleep permeates the midmorning catastrophe to come.

“Plaintiffs, Arwinder Singh, Jaswinder Kaur, and Kirandeep Kaur, were sleeping in their beds,” the 20-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court reads. “Mr. Vertus fell asleep while operating the tractor-trailer causing the 2021 Freightliner pulling a 2019 Utility Box Trailer to travel off the right side of the interstate, across a grass divider, over a paved on-ramp, then down an earth embankment, through a tree line and metal fence, then across a paved driveway and yard, striking the Plaintiff Arwinder Singh’s vehicle, then crashing into the Singh Family home.”

“This is probably the first one of these that I’ve dealt with in my career, and I’ve been here 24 years so, you know, we’ve dealt with a lot of stuff, extrication from vehicles to house fires,” Erwin Fire Chief Jason Harris told Johnson City-based ABC and CBS affiliate WJHL . “But to have a road tractor-trailer plow through a house, it made it difficult.”

The lawsuit cites the Tennessee State Police’s Critical Incident Response Team Report to account for what caused the crash.

Kirandeep Kaur, 31, and Jaswinder Kaur, 54, died as a result of the crash. The structure was quickly “engulfed in flames essentially destroying the home” and killing the family’s dog, the lawsuit says.

“Not only did the family lose two amazing women, they also lost everything they own,” a GoFundMe explains.

The younger woman died at the scene and suffered a litany of injuries from the crash and ensuing fire, according to the medical examiner.

Those injuries included: open lacerations of her forehead and posterior scalp, abrasions and contusions on her skin, a right femur and left humerus fracture, bleeding between the skull and scalp, skull bone fractures, facial fractures to the mandible and maxilla, fractures to six of her left ribs, and bleeding in her right eye.

The older woman survived longer — but suffered through exceedingly dire and grim circumstances during the final hours of her life.

“Plaintiff, Jaswinder Kaur, was trapped under debris and burned alive for over 90 minutes before emergency personnel found her,” the lawsuit reads. “Upon discovery, she was conscious and responding to fire and rescue personnel. Her feet were so severely burned that they were practically non-existent. She sustained third degree full thickness burns on both thighs extending up to her buttocks. Ms. Kaur lived for approximately 24 hours and then succumbed to her injuries.”

Arwinder Singh, the son and brother of the victims, was the only family member who survived the crash. As the tractor-trailer careened into his home at around 7:55 a.m. that day, “the explosion caused by the collision caused” him “to be ejected from his second-story bedroom” and to land “several feet away in the front yard,” according to the lawsuit.

He suffered “serious permanent injuries” including several spinal fractures, and multiple rib and skull fractures that still require medical treatment as a result of the incident, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges negligence on behalf of Vertus, principal-agent liability imputing Vertus’ alleged negligence to FFE, negligence on behalf of FFE, and loss of consortium attributed to both defendants.

“As an agent/employee of FFE Transportation Services, Inc., Mr. Vertus had a duty to the Plaintiffs to operate FFE Transportation Services, Inc.’s tractor-trailer in a careful and prudent manner for the conditions that existed,” the lawsuit alleges. “These duties included, but were not limited to, dedicating full time and attention to the operation of the tractor-trailer, reasonably controlling his speed, operating the tractor-trailer on the roadway, refraining from negligently striking other automobiles (and homes) and otherwise obeying the vehicular laws of the State of Tennessee.”

The plaintiffs are seeking $20 million, jointly and severally, to cover economic and noneconomic damages, litigation costs, and interest.

Vertus was hospitalized, discharged, jailed, and charged with criminally negligent homicide over the incident. He is slated to be arraigned in August at the Unicoi County Circuit Court, according to WJHL .

Law&Crime reached out to FFE for comment on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.

Neither defendant is currently represented by counsel, according to the federal docket for the lawsuit.

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