Wake County schools, NC will pay more than $350,000 to family of teacher killed in auto wreck

The family of a Wake Forest High School teacher killed in a 2016 wreck will receive more than $350,000 from the Wake County school system and the state Department of Public Instruction.

Michelle Simone Barlow, 42, of Wake Forest, was killed on March 22, 2016 when her minivan was smashed between a dump truck and a tractor-trailer on Capital Boulevard just south of the Burlington Mills Road intersection. The state Industrial Commission determined that the English teacher’s death was work-related and ordered the school system to pay her family $355,325 in lost future wages.

“What the Industrial Commission resolution does is replace two-thirds of her wages,” said Bruce Berger, the attorney representing the Barlow family. “You’re talking purely an economic recovery, which financially helps but doesn’t replace all the intangible stuff that a mom and a wife provides.”

The family has filed a lawsuit against the dump truck driver who rear-ended Barlow, against the owner of the dump truck and the driver’s employer.

Donald Wayne Caulder, who drove the dump truck, was convicted in January of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. He received 12 months probation and a suspended sentence.

The Barlow case is among the workers’ compensation claims that have been filed against the Wake school system, which has 19,134 employees.

At this week’s school board meeting, it was announced that the district had recently settled 11 workers’ comp cases for $357,800. Amounts ranged from $3,500 to $100,000. Those cases were all settled before a decision was reached by the Industrial Commission, so the files aren’t public.

Far more is known about Barlow, who was remembered by her colleagues as a passionate, enthusiastic, driven educator who was well-liked by her students.

The Highway Patrol said Caulder was driving a Freightliner dump truck that was towing a Bobcat northbound on U.S. 1 when it rear ended a Toyota Sienna minivan driven by Barlow. The collision pushed Barlow’s minivan into the rear of a tractor-trailer truck.

According to the April 25 Industrial Commission decision, Barlow had left a work meeting that took place off campus. School officials weren’t able to determine whether Barlow was returning to Wake Forest High or heading home that afternoon. But the district agreed to pay workers’ compensation benefits to the family.

In the ruling, Deputy Commissioner Melanie Wade Goodwin said that Barlow “died in the course and scope of her employment.”

Goodwin ordered the defendants to pay $710.65 a week for 500 weeks, with one-third each going to Barlow’s husband and her two children. Based on state law, the family is getting two-thirds of Barlow’s weekly salary of $1,065.92.

The state will pay 84 percent and Wake will pay 16 percent.

Goodwin also ordered the defendants to reimburse the family’s medical and burial expenses related to the accident.

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 1:21 PM with the headline "Wake County schools, NC will pay more than $350,000 to family of teacher killed in auto wreck."