Third suit filed in fatal Mount Pleasant bus crash: School bus driver alleges intoxication assault
A third lawsuit was filed Monday in Texarkana federal court concerning a fatal collision in March between an 18-wheeler and a school bus carrying members of the Mount Pleasant, Texas, boys track team.
Texarkana lawyer Hawley Holman filed a complaint Monday on behalf of Carl Van Bowen, the driver of the school bus struck when a big rig being driven by 49-year-old Bradley Farmer veered into the bus' lane. Farmer and coach Angelica Beard, 30, who was following the bus in a private car, were killed. Bowen and more than a dozen children were injured. Holman said Bowen's injuries were multiple and severe.
"He's lucky to be alive," Holman said.
The complaint Holman filed Monday accuses Farmer, who was driving for defendant Rooney Trucking, of committing intoxication assault. An autopsy report released Friday shows Farmer had methamphetamine in his system at the time of the deadly crash.
The two earlier suits filed in connection with the crash on behalf of student athletes and their parents do not allege Farmer's intoxication, but those complaints can be amended. All three cases and an action filed Friday by Rooney Trucking's insurance carrier, Acuity Mutual Insurance Co., are pending before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas.
Read more: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texarkana/story/2017/jun/06/third-suit-filed-fatal-bus-crash-school-bus-driver-alleges-intoxication-assault-more/676935/
