Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion, Matt Hughes, was left with permanent brain damage after his truck collided with an oncoming train back in June 2017 in Springfield, Illinois.
Now, a little over two years after he was airlifted to HSHS St. John’s Hospital in a temporary coma, the two-time NCAA Division I All-American is going after Norfolk Southern Railway (NSR) for posing a “grave danger” to the public.
That’s according to a report from MMA Fighting.
Not surprisingly, defense attorneys refute the claims that NSR is responsible for Hughes crash, suggesting the UFC hall-of-famer was yapping on the phone and knowingly tried to cross the tracks in the path of a “plainly visible” train.
It should be noted that NSR has a history of safety-related lawsuits.
It’s been a rough year for Hughes, who was recently accused of domestic violence by his estranged wife, a co-plaintiff in the NSR suit. He also got into a public tractor dispute with his brother and nephew.
Hughes is seeking damages of $50,000, plus attorney fees.