Amazon involved in legal action over deaths in 2 states, possible scam in 1

Amazon has found itself involved in three recent legal developments regarding its trucking operations.

In one, it suffered a setback in Indiana in a lawsuit involving a driver who was killed near a fulfillment center. In another, prosecutors in Connecticut said the company was scammed out of $3 million. And in the third, a tractor-trailer pulling an Amazon load near Chattanooga, Tennessee, was involved in an accident that led to multiple deaths and charges against the driver. 

In the Indiana case, a three-judge panel at the state’s Court of Appeals last week unanimously overturned a lower court decision from June 2023 that dismissed a lawsuit filed by the estate of Harvail Singh Dhillon, an independent owner-operator who was killed near an Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) fulfillment center in Greenfield in October 2022.

According to the court’s recap of the case, Dhillon was making a delivery to the Amazon facility, which he was not familiar with, and got lost trying to enter the grounds. He pulled to the side of a road that went past the fulfillment center, got out of the truck to cross the road, and was struck and killed by a fuel carrier.

One of the surrounding roads that also had entrances had a “no trucks” sign, according to the recap. The only directions from Amazon, the recap said, were an address and a time of delivery. 

The Court of Appeals described the Amazon facility as having two entrances on the north side but with “no truck” signs present. “There was no signage posted at either of the two entrances to inform incoming truck drivers as to where they were expected to enter the facility,” the court said. There was a third entrance as well.

Dead driver described as ‘confused’

The result, according to the court: Dhillon “became confused … as he could not discern any other entrances serving the facility.”

Dhillon was attempting to deliver goods to Amazon at 6:40 a.m. in October, when it was still dark.

He pulled his truck over on one of the roads, the court wrote, got out to figure out what to do, and was immediately struck and killed by the tanker truck.

It wasn’t the first time; according to the court, there had been another incident 48 days earlier in which a driver was struck at Greenfield. That also led to a lawsuit by the driver, Mahari Oukbo, an independent owner-operator who survived. 

The Court of Appeals, citing testimony from the Oukbo case, quoted the driver who struck Oukbo as saying that “you see these truck drivers all the time stopping and getting out here” because they were confused as to where to go. Also in that case, according to the court, citing Oukbo-related testimony, an Amazon employee told local police that he “sees these lost truck drivers get out of their trucks at this spot every day.”

Dhillon’s estate filed suit, saying confusion it blamed on Amazon created an “imminent danger” to drivers. But the argument lost on the lower court level in June 2023, with the judge saying Amazon had “no duty” in part because the incident occurred off Amazon property.

In overturning the lower court and sending the case back to it for further proceedings, the Court of Appeals relied on a precedent from a 1994 case. A hospital was ruled negligent after a woman was struck on the grounds of the facility.

The Court of Appeals’ conclusion last week was that Dhillon’s estate had “sufficiently alleged that Amazon used its premises in a manner that harbored a dangerous condition off its own premises, i.e., on the county road, that affected the risk of injury to others. Amazon’s lack of signage and its failure to direct delivery truck drivers where to enter the fulfillment center created confusion and a dangerous condition.”

The Oukbo case took a similar path: The driver lost on the lower court level in Indiana in the suit against Amazon and CF Mount Comfort DST, which the court collectively refers to as Amazon, but the Court of Appeals reversed. A recent request by the attorneys for Amazon for a transfer of the Court of Appeals case to the Supreme Court was denied. (Indiana law defines “transfer” as accepting jurisdiction in a case by the state’s highest court.)

If the Oukbo case then is headed back to the lower court – attorneys for Oukbo had not responded to queries by publication time – it will mean there are two cases in the state involving Amazon’s responsibility for proper directions and signage at one of its fulfillment facilities. Amazon’s press relations team had not responded to an email by publication time.

Fraud costs estimated at $3 million

In the federal indictment in which Amazon is alleged to be a victim, the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut said a 24-year-old named Ameer Nasir was hit Wednesday with a 13-count indictment charging wire fraud.

According to the indictment, between December 2019 and February 2021, Nasir “evaded” a security feature in Amazon Relay, the transportation management system of Amazon Logistics. 

According to the indictment, Amazon Relay would allow a trucking company that accepted the task of moving an Amazon trailer to “virtually check out a trailer at the initial location, and then to check in the same trailer at the destination location once the trailer movement was complete.”

By getting through the geofencing capabilities in Amazon Relay, according to the indictment, Nasir was able to show that he had “completed trailer movements which he had not, in fact, completed.”

According to the indictment, Nasir would then submit invoices to Amazon. The company did make deposits to Nasir’s companies. The total number of submitted trailer moves by Nasir: more than 1,000, resulting in the payments of more than $3 million.

Multiple carrier names were registered by Nasir, including Pak Express, Adam Express and Roadstar Logistics.

The U.S. attorney’s office said each offense carries a maximum imprisonment of 20 years on each count.

Deaths on the highway near Chattanooga

In the third legal incident involving Amazon and drivers in just the past few days, a driver hauling freight for Amazon was involved in a crash Sunday near Chattanooga, Tennessee, that led to multiple deaths. (Drivers hauling an Amazon trailer are either independent owner-operators or work for a fleet that is working for Amazon. Amazon does not employ a driver fleet.)

The truck involved in the Chattanooga-area accident that led to fatalities and charges against the driver. Photo courtesy of  WDEF news channel 12 in Chattanooga.

FreightWaves has requested the full incident report from local authorities. But other local outlets report the crash that occurred on Interstate 75 northbound at the Tennessee/Georgia line resulted in two deaths.

The driver, Joseph Antoinier, was taken to the hospital and later booked into the Hamilton County Jail on multiple charges, including reckless homicide and felony reckless endangerment.

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