Dates for jury selection and trial have been set by a federal judge in Texarkana for civil suits stemming from a fatal crash between an 18-wheeler and a school bus carrying members of the Mount Pleasant, Texas, boys track team.
The Mount Pleasant boys track team was traveling on Highway 271 about 10 miles north of Mount Pleasant on their way home from a meet in Paris, Texas, when a big rig being driven by Rooney Trucking driver Bradley Farmer veered into the bus' lane and struck it. As the bus spun out of control, a car being driven by an assistant coach following the bus was struck as well, killing coach Angelica Beard and Farmer. Of the 34 students on the bus, more than a dozen were transported to area hospitals with injuries, as was bus driver Carl Van Bowen.
According to an autopsy report, Farmer, 49, was under the influence of methamphetamine. Before the autopsy report's release, two suits were filed on behalf of student athletes who were on the bus in Titus County District Court. Rooney Trucking removed those suits to the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas. A third suit filed in federal court on behalf of Van Bowen by Texarkana lawyer Hawley Holman alleges Farmer committed intoxication assault when he caused the collision. All three of the lawsuits filed on behalf of crash survivors accuse Missouri-based Rooney Trucking of being negligent in various ways.
In responses to the complaints, Rooney shifts blame to the Mount Pleasant Independent School District and Durham School Services, a company that managed the district's busing the night of the fatal crash. Rooney's answer states the students' injuries could have been lessened or avoided altogether if the bus had been outfitted with seat belts.
Rooney's insurance carrier, Acuity Mutual Insurance Co., filed a complaint in the same federal court where the three injury suits are pending which asks for the court's help in determining who should receive payments under the policy, which has a $1 million-per-accident limit. Acuity's filing states the company is willing to deposit $1 million in the court's registry and to abide by the court's order in dividing the available insurance settlement.
Acuity's filing notes that dozens of potential claimants exist and that the proceeds of the insurance policy are inadequate to satisfy all the claims.
U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III scheduled the consolidated civil suits for jury selection in mid-April 2018 following a scheduling conference Thursday in Texarkana's downtown federal building.
