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This is an example of the deposition of the safety expert.


Speaker 1:                           And at this time, the court reporter, Missy Lionetti, will swear in the witness.

Speaker 2:                           Would you raise your right hand? Do you swear the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Give your name for the record, if you will.

James Vaughan:               James Vaughan.

Speaker 4:                           Do you go by Jim?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Where do you work, Mr. Vaughan?

James Vaughan:               Joseph Eletto Transfer.

Speaker 4:                           And how long have you worked at Joseph Eletto Transfer?

James Vaughan:               37 years.

Speaker 4:                           And Joseph Eletto Transfer is a trucking company, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           You're a director at Eletto, isn't that right?

James Vaughan:               Operations director.

Speaker 4:                           Have you also been called the safety director?

James Vaughan:               It's under the responsibilities of the operations director.

Speaker 4:                           So that's among your responsibilities?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           What do you do as the safety director?

James Vaughan:               You mean as the operations director?

Speaker 4:                           Well, sure. What are your responsibilities associated with your duties as the safety director, which I understand is part of being the operations manager ... operations director, excuse me?

James Vaughan:               Okay. So I work in the corporate office in New York, communicate with our operations managers throughout the country on various issues, whether it's safety, operational issues, home delivery issues, tractor trailer issues, customer relations.

Speaker 4:                           You also have some responsibility for risk management I think. Is that right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Tell us what risk management is.

James Vaughan:               Well, I work with the insurance companies, and in addition to that, my office and my group is responsible for vetting any new employees, background checks.

Speaker 4:                           And you get involved when an Eletto truck has been in a crash, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes. I would be involved with that as well.

Speaker 4:                           Okay. At the time of this collision, tell us how many trucks Eletto owned or operated.

James Vaughan:               That would be August of 2015, I believe?

Speaker 4:                           September 3 of 2015.

James Vaughan:               Okay. I'd say around 300.

Speaker 4:                           And Eletto operated in 30 states or so. Is that right?

James Vaughan:               We had offices in 18 states. Some of our trucks traveled through several other states.

Speaker 4:                           Would it be accurate to say that Eletto operates through offices located in 15 states and had a service reach extending beyond 35 states?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           You said your office was in New York?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           In the city, or here on Long Island?

James Vaughan:               On Long Island.

Speaker 4:                           And do you live here on Long Island?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           We are here in Long Island taking this deposition today, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Have you given a deposition before?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           How many times?

James Vaughan:               Half a dozen or so.

Speaker 4:                           Is that all in connection with your work with Eletto?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           All in connection with crashes involving Eletto trucks?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           I want to ask you about some responses that Eletto gave to the written questions that we've exchanged in this case. You've probably heard of interrogatories before.

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           All right. I'll show you now what I'll mark as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number Six to your deposition, and I'll represent to you that this is a copy of Eletto's interrogatory responses in this case.

Speaker 4:                           And as you probably already can figure out, what happens here is that the plaintiff, that is my client, asked a question in the regular font, and then the bold below that is going to be Eletto's answers. Does that make sense?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Turn with me, if you will, to page nine. And interrogatory number 22. You'll find it highlighted there. And that says, the question was, "Does Joseph Eletto transfer accept any responsibility for the wreck?" And the answer was, "No." Did I read that right?

James Vaughan:               You read that right, yes.

Speaker 4:                           Do you stand by that?

Speaker 5:                           Go ahead.

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           All right. Why not?

James Vaughan:               Because this individual who had the accident was operating under our authority. And therefore we were responsible.

Speaker 4:                           Okay. There's a lot to accept responsibility for Mr Jordan's medical bills arising out of this collision.

Speaker 5:                           Objection, calls for a legal conclusion.

Speaker 4:                           I believe you can go ahead and answer.

James Vaughan:               I couldn't answer that question. I wouldn't know the answer to it.

Speaker 4:                           Okay. Well, do you know whether Eletto accepts responsibility for Mr Jordan's pain and suffering caused by this collision?

Speaker 5:                           Objection. Calls for a legal conclusion.

James Vaughan:               I'm not an attorney.

Speaker 4:                           Do you know?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Do you know whether Eletto accepts responsibility for the changes to Mr Jordan's life that have been caused by his injuries as a result of this collision?

Speaker 5:                           Same objection.

James Vaughan:               Again, no. None.

Speaker 4:                           No, you don't know?

James Vaughan:               No. I don't know.

Speaker 4:                           Well, was the driver of this truck at fault for the collision?

James Vaughan:               Our driver?

Speaker 4:                           Yes.

James Vaughan:               I'm not sure who was at fault at the time of the accident.

Speaker 4:                           You don't know who was at fault?

James Vaughan:               That's correct.

Speaker 4:                           Now, this collision, I think we've said occurred on September the 3rd of 2015. It's now March of 2017 and you still don't know who's at fault for the collision?

James Vaughan:               I mean, I wasn't there, so I didn't see it happen.

Speaker 4:                           Well, you investigated them collision, right?

James Vaughan:               My folks in Stone Mountain did, yes.

Speaker 4:                           And you were in charge of investigating the collision, weren't you?

James Vaughan:               No. The folks in Atlanta on scene would've investigated the collision. I would have received the documents, the accident report forwarded on to the insurance company.

Speaker 4:                           Well, take a look at Plaintiff's Exhibit Six, which is the interrogatory responses that are in front of you there. And turn with me to interrogatory number seven, which starts on page three.

Speaker 4:                           And I won't read the full paragraph under the number seven there, but it basically says, "Identify people that have the positions described below." And flip then to the next page,, number four and look at letter J, which is highlighted there. It says, "Persons who investigated this collision, Jim Vaughan." Did I read that right?

James Vaughan:               You did.

Speaker 4:                           All right. And in the days after this collision, you were trying to figure out what happened and investigating it, weren't you?

James Vaughan:               After the collision, the responsibility is for the local manager to complete an accident report and forward it to our office in New York. We take a look at it and then forward it to Vanliner.

Speaker 4:                           Well, I'll just go ahead and show you the document then. I'll show you what I'm going to mark as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number Seven, which your company has produced, or given to us in this case. This Plaintiff's Exhibit Seven appears to be an email exchange, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And if you, it's only a two-page exhibit, if you flip to the second page, we see an email from you, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And that email is dated September 10, 2015 right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           It sounds like that'd be seven days after the collision, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           In fact, the subject is "September 3, 2015 Accident," right?

James Vaughan:               Correct.

Speaker 4:                           This says that ... Who's this email to?

James Vaughan:               Katie Booth.

Speaker 4:                           And who is she?

James Vaughan:               I believe she works for Vanliner.

Speaker 4:                           Vanliner Insurance Company, a defendant in this case?

James Vaughan:               That's correct.

Speaker 4:                           And here, you said in this email that you had just spoken with Antwone Billings, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And Billings is the name of the driver who collided with Mr. Jordan, isn't it?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And you went on to describe what happened in the collision, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Here you say he was ... You talked about a citation in the case, correct?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And then it goes on, and you have some language here, we won't have to go through all of it, but it refers to an IV and an OV. And I wanted to ask you what those mean. What does IV mean?

James Vaughan:               Insured vehicle.

Speaker 4:                           So that'd be the Eletto truck, right?

James Vaughan:               That's correct.

Speaker 4:                           And OV, is that "other vehicle"?

James Vaughan:               That's correct.

Speaker 4:                           And that'd be the collision that ... the vehicle that Mr. Jordan was pinned against in this case, I guess.

James Vaughan:               That would be the other vehicle.

Speaker 4:                           And this talks about how the Eletto driver had his foot slip off the brake, hit the other vehicle driver, whose arm was pinned between the truck, and may have sustained a fracture. Is all that correct?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Now, I asked you earlier who was at fault for the collision, and you answered, so I won't ask you again. But I will ask you this. Do you have any reason to think that Mr. Jordan bears any fault for this collision?

Speaker 5:                           Object that the form calls for a legal conclusion. But go ahead.

James Vaughan:               We still don't understand why he would have gotten out of his truck in the lane of traffic and gone by behind his truck to check a load, why he wouldn't have pulled off into a parking lot to do that. So we find that kind of unusual. That's not something that normally truck drivers would do in traffic.

Speaker 4:                           Do you think Mr. Jordan is at fault for doing?

Speaker 5:                           Object to form. Go ahead.

James Vaughan:               I would say he made a poor decision to check his load in a traffic lane.

Speaker 4:                           Well, what evidence do you know of that suggests that Mr. Jordan is at fault for the collision?

Speaker 5:                           Objection. Calls for a legal conclusion. [inaudible 00:11:05] if you're going to answer, go ahead.

James Vaughan:               I don't know how to answer that question.

Speaker 4:                           Well, did you learn something from the police officers who investigated the case suggesting to you that Mr. Jordan was at fault?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Did you learn something from the medical records suggesting that Mr. Jordan was at fault?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           The truth is, Mr. Vaughn, to the best of your knowledge, you don't know of any evidence held by any defendant suggesting that Mr. Jordan was at fault for this collision. Isn't that true?

Speaker 5:                           You can answer. Go ahead.

James Vaughan:               Only that his actions were unusual.

Speaker 4:                           Well, let me show you a document that I'll mark as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number Eight. Have you heard of requests for admissions? It's kind of like the interrogatories that we went over a minute ago.

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           All right. That's what I'm going to show you. These are requests for admissions in the case that your company has answered. And it works much like interrogatories. There's a number and then a statement made by my client through me, and then your company either admits or denies or responds. And there's two responses here because there was an initial response, and then earlier this month, they changed the response, and that's called an "amended response" here.

Speaker 4:                           I want to ask you to flip to the second page of Plaintiff's Exhibit Eight. And it has 39 at the top. Do you see that?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And the statement is, "Plaintiff was not at fault for the collision." Did I read that right?

James Vaughan:               You read that right.

Speaker 4:                           The initial response there says, "Deny," right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And then, under that there's an amended response, some of which is highlighted, and that says, quote, "For its amended response to request to admit number 39, defendant Eletto states that based on the information presently available, it does not have any evidence showing Plaintiff was at fault for the collision. As such, Defendant Eletto admits in part and denies as written in part Request to Admit Number 39." Did I read that right?

James Vaughan:               You read that right.

Speaker 4:                           And that's dated March 15th, correct?

James Vaughan:               Correct.

Speaker 4:                           That would've been last week, I think.

James Vaughan:               Correct.

Speaker 4:                           I want to show you a picture that I've now marked as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number Nine. Have you seen that before?

James Vaughan:               No, Sir.

Speaker 4:                           Well, would you be surprised to learn that that's a picture of the Eletto truck and the crane between which Mr. Jordan was pinned?

James Vaughan:               Surprised?

Speaker 4:                           Yeah. Would you be surprised to learn that?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Any reason to dispute that?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Do you see that little dent on the bumper of the truck?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Would you be surprised to learn that's where Mr. Jordan was pinned?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           You would be surprised to learn that?

James Vaughan:               Yeah, based on this picture, I would be.

Speaker 4:                           Why would you be surprised to learn that?

James Vaughan:               Well, looking at this picture, the crease in the bumper appears to be previous to the accident, because it looks like there's some rust there.

Speaker 4:                           Now, did you speak with the officer who investigated this wreck on the scene?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Have you ever tried to make contact with officer Peavler?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 2:                           I'm sorry, officer ...?

Speaker 4:                           Peavler, that's P-E-A-V-L-E-R. Have you spoken with the medical first responders who came to the scene of this collision?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Have you spoken with anyone who was on the scene of this collision when it happened, other than Eletto's driver?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Well, let me ask you this. Do you have any reason to believe that a mechanical or maintenance problem with the Eletto truck contributed to this collision?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Well, how many times did you speak with Mr. Billings, the driver of the Eletto truck?

James Vaughan:               I can't recall specifically. Maybe two or three times.

Speaker 4:                           All right. Did he ever mention any mechanical or maintenance problem on the truck to you?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           Well, did you know ... And when we say you spoke with Mr. Billings two or three times, I'm talking about speaking to him about the wreck after the wreck. Is that what you understood my question to be?

James Vaughan:               Post accident.

Speaker 4:                           Right.

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Did you know that once this case ... as the legal case got started, Mr. Billings suggested that the brake pedal was worn, and that's why his foot slipped off of it?

James Vaughan:               I heard that.

Speaker 4:                           Who did you hear that from?

James Vaughan:               Mr. Billings.

Speaker 4:                           Oh. So when did he say that?

James Vaughan:               I can't recall.

Speaker 4:                           Okay. Well, it wasn't in your initial conversation with him, was it?

James Vaughan:               Again, I don't know which conversation it was specifically.

Speaker 4:                           Well, let's look back at that email that you sent. And I misplaced my copy of it. I believe it was Exhibit Number Seven. And your email to Ms. Booth with Vanliner doesn't say anything about the brake pedal being worn, does it?

James Vaughan:               No, sir.

Speaker 4:                           And this email was after your first conversation with Mr. Billings anyway, right?

James Vaughan:               I would imagine.

Speaker 4:                           Well, it has to be because the email says, "I just spoke with Antwone Billings," right?

James Vaughan:               Okay. Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Isn't it true that Eletto, your company, was not aware of any issue with that brake pedal?

James Vaughan:               I'm not aware of any issue with that brake pedal. I don't know that anybody else in the organization was.

Speaker 4:                           Well, has else in the organization, to your knowledge, thought that it might be a mechanical problem with the brake though?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           And consistent with that, I'd like to ask you to pull out those interrogatories again, they're Plaintiff's Exhibit Number Six,. and flip to page 12. And you can see where I'm going because it's highlighted there. Do you see 31 in the middle of the page?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And the question there was, "Did any issue with the subject truck, whether a mechanical problem, electronic problem, or defect, cause or contribute to the wreck in any way? If so, describe that issue in detail." And the answer was [crosstalk 00:18:26].

Speaker 4:                           Let me start over again. And that interrogatory says, quote, "Did any issue with the subject truck, whether a mechanical problem, electronic problem, or a defect, cause or contribute to the wreck in any way? If so, describe that issue in detail," end quote. And the answer was, quote, "Not to this Defendant's knowledge," end quote. Is that right?

James Vaughan:               That's correct.

Speaker 4:                           Isn't it also true that after this collision, Mr. Billings did not take the truck in for repairs, but instead kept driving and making his deliveries?

James Vaughan:               What time did the accident occur?

Speaker 4:                           About 12:30.

James Vaughan:               So his day probably would have been done by 4:00, so I believe after the accident he may have continued with his deliveries. I can't say for sure. That's all I know about that.

Speaker 4:                           Well, have you looked at the GPS vehicle tracking to figure out what happened after the collision?

James Vaughan:               No, I personally have not. No.

Speaker 4:                           Well, let me show you then what I'll mark as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 10 to your deposition. And I'll represent to you that this was produced by Ryder, the company from whom Eletto got the truck. You see that Ryder 0036 stamp in the bottom right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And then at the top left it says, "Ride smart," correct?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           All right. Well, this exhibit has a whole bunch of pages, almost 30, and it goes through, I'll just represent to you September 2nd at midnight through the end of September 4th. But we're not interested in all that. If you'll flip with me to page 16 of 29, tell me when you're there.

James Vaughan:               I'm here.

Speaker 4:                           Now, there's, you can see on the right, there's a list of the approximate GPS location, and do you see the third one down, which is highlighted there, it says, "5993 Peachtree Parkway Northwest"?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           You see that?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Do you understand that to be at or near the site of the collision?

James Vaughan:               I don't, but-

Speaker 4:                           Any reason to dispute that?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           And then, if we go all the way left, we'll see the date and time is September 3, 2015, date of the collision, at about 12:34 PM. Do you see that?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Now, if we look down after that, we can see that the truck keeps going all through September 3rd to the end of the day, it goes on for several pages. The truck is still out moving around and apparently making deliveries. Does that appear to be correct?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And we can see, if we flip to page 23 of 29, looking at the fifth line down, the truck continued moving around until a little after 10:00 PM on the night of September 3rd, 2015. Is that right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Isn't it true that drivers are supposed to make daily inspections of the trucks that they drive?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And they're supposed to create something called "vehicle inspection reports," right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           That's required by federal law, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And then, it's also something that Eletto tells its drivers they're supposed to do, correct?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And we'll show you an exhibit about that. This will be Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 11. And Plaintiff's Exhibit 11 is some Eletto's training materials, right?

James Vaughan:               This is part of the driver qualification file.

Speaker 4:                           Is this part of the training materials that Eletto uses?

James Vaughan:               It's part of the driver qualification file.

Speaker 4:                           Tell me what you mean by that then.

James Vaughan:               When a driver is hired, there's several documents that he completes, and this would be one of them.

Speaker 4:                           This is one that Antwone Billings created apparently, from the date on the bottom, about a week before the collision, on August 25th of 2015.

James Vaughan:               Correct. That's probably the day he started completing the DQF.

Speaker 4:                           Driver qualification file?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And if we look there at the top, I've highlighted what I'm interested in, it says, "Every driver must prepare a vehicle inspection report in writing at the completion of each day's work on each vehicle he or she operates." Is that right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And that vehicle inspection report is supposed to cover several things, but the very first one listed is the service brakes, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Service brakes just means what most drivers would call the regular brakes, the one you hit with your foot if you want to stop, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Now, where is the driver inspection report for the date of this collision?

James Vaughan:               I have no idea.

Speaker 4:                           Well, have you looked for it?

James Vaughan:               I personally have not looked. Maybe the staff in Stone Mountain might have. Had they found it, I would've produced it. But apparently they didn't.

Speaker 4:                           Did you call down there and ask the folks in Stone Mountain?

James Vaughan:               I probably did.

Speaker 4:                           Do you remember whether you did that?

James Vaughan:               No, I don't.

Speaker 4:                           Have you ever seen the vehicle inspection report for the subject truck, that is Billings's truck, on the day of this collision?

James Vaughan:               I have not.

Speaker 4:                           Well, did you know that Mr. Jordan, through his lawyer, which is me, asked to see that document?

James Vaughan:               If you say so.

Speaker 4:                           You didn't know that though?

James Vaughan:               I don't recall, no.

Speaker 4:                           Okay. Well, I'll show you then what I'll mark as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 12. And this is going to be an excerpt from requests for productions, which are a lot like the interrogatories and RFAs that we've been over. Are you familiar with the idea of requests for production?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And, look, if you flip to the second page of Plaintiff's Exhibit 12, which was page nine to the original longer document, you see 23 at the bottom highlighted there?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And that says, "Produce all post-trip inspection reports or forms for the subject truck from the day of the wreck and the seven days preceding the wreck." And the answer was, "This Defendant is not in possession of records responsive to this paragraph." Did I read that right?

James Vaughan:               You did.

Speaker 4:                           And then, on the very next page, number 24, I asked for pre-trip inspection reports, and the answer is the same. Is that right?

James Vaughan:               That's correct.

Speaker 4:                           Did you know that your company's lawyers in this case have said they don't know whether Billings ever created that vehicle inspection report that federal law required?

James Vaughan:               I don't.

Speaker 4:                           Well, I'll show you then what I've marked as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 13. And this is a letter, and at the top it says, "Dennis, Corry, Porter & Smith," right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           That's the law firm that's defending this case on Eletto and Vanliner on Billings's behalf, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And if we flip to the second page, you can see what I'm driving at here, number three, which is highlighted, it says, "Billings is not sure whether he prepared a pre-trip or post-trip inspection report. As stated, defendants are not in possession of documents responsive to those paragraphs." Did I read that right?

James Vaughan:               You did.

Speaker 4:                           Now, isn't it true, Mr. Vaughan, that shortly after this collision, Eletto knew and you knew that that vehicle inspection report was an important document to save?

James Vaughan:               We understand that we're responsible to gather the documents required, especially in light of an accident, yes.

Speaker 4:                           And that included specifically the vehicle inspection report, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           In fact, you received a letter ... well, I guess I'll just [Inaudible 00:27:47]. You received a letter shortly after this wreck asking you and your company to preserve that vehicle inspection report. Right?

James Vaughan:               Are you going to show it to me?

Speaker 4:                           I can, sure. Do you remember it?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           All right. Then I'll show you what I've marked as Plaintiff's Exhibit 14. And this is a letter from The Mabra Firm, right? Says it at the top?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           It's to Joseph Eletto and to your attention, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And then it goes on, and here, the highlighted language toward the bottom of the first page of Plaintiff's Exhibit 14 asks that certain evidence be preserved and not be destroyed, modified, altered, repaired, or changed in any manner. Is that right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And then number five on the list of stuff to preserve includes the inspection reports, correct?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Now, did you look for those inspection reports today in advanced of this deposition?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           When was the last time you looked for them?

James Vaughan:               I personally never looked for them.

Speaker 4:                           Okay.

James Vaughan:               I see this letter was sent to our Hicksville address. Well, we were in Syosset, we were at Syosset at the time. I don't even recall ever seeing this letter. I may have, but I don't.

Speaker 4:                           Well, anyway, there was a legal requirement to preserve that stuff, wasn't there?

James Vaughan:               Understood.

Speaker 4:                           Isn't it true, Mr. Vaughan, that Antwone Billings, the driver of this truck, was not very experienced at driving trucks like this?

James Vaughan:               I don't recall his exact experience.I'm sure that was discussed when he was interviewed locally.

Speaker 4:                           We'll circle back to that in a minute. This was a commercial truck that Eletto leased to Billings to drive, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           And at the time of this collision, Billings had just started driving for Eletto like a week or two before, isn't that right?

James Vaughan:               I believe it was his first day.

Speaker 4:                           Okay. And before he started driving for Eletto, isn't it true that Mr. Billings had been driving for Pizza Hut?

James Vaughan:               I'd have to look at some documents to verify that.

Speaker 4:                           Do you remember him being a Pizza Hut delivery driver?

James Vaughan:               I personally don't know.

Speaker 4:                           All right. Well, I'll show you then what I've marked as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 15. And 15 is an excerpt from some materials produced to us in this case. And there at the top, under last job, it says, "Pizza Hut," and position was delivery driver, right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Now, Mr. Billings did not have a commercial driver's license, did he?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           I will show you what I've marked as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 16. And I'll represent to you that's a copy of Mr. Billings's driver's license produced to Mr. Jordan and his lawyers in this case. And do you see the stamp there, Eletto 000026, in the bottom right?

James Vaughan:               Yes.

Speaker 4:                           Have you seen this driver's license before?

James Vaughan:               I'm sure I have.

Speaker 4:                           Well, have you seen the other driver's licenses for Mr. Billings?

James Vaughan:               No.

Speaker 4:                           This one was no good on the date of the collision, was it?

Speaker 5:                           Object to form.

Speaker 4:                           If you look in the top right there, it says, "This driver's license expired on August 20th of 2015," isn't that right?

James Vaughan:               That's correct, yes.

Speaker 4:                           Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. I have no further questions.

Speaker 5:                           No questions.

Speaker 1:                           This is the end of today's deposition. The time is 12:58, and we're off the record
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