$90 million dollar lawsuit for child struck by car?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard of this case? It happened 4 years ago but a just just found the school district liable for $90 million?

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/17/17790120-family-of-teen-killed-by-car-awarded-90-million-by-jury?lite

The 13 year old girl was crossing the street to get to her bus stop and was hit by a car, and died.

[Anonymous]

Wow this is the first I heard of this.

[Anonymous]

As the story reports, many states have laws limiting the amount that may be recovered from a government entity either at the local or state level when they are found negligent. So there is a chance they will only recover the $100k.

I'm not saying this to diminish the horrific death or to in any way say that the school board was not at fault.

[Anonymous]

Big law hard at work , the family will pocket half.

[Anonymous]

There must be more to the story, maybe very egregious conduct, for a $90 mil verdict. That is a big amount.

[Anonymous]

So, a 13 year old cannot cross the street by herself. Interesting. How is it suppose to work? Are the bus operators required to drive down one side of the street and then make a u-turn and go down the other side of the street to pick up students. Children will live on both sides of a street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, a 13 year old cannot cross the street by herself. Interesting. How is it suppose to work? Are the bus operators required to drive down one side of the street and then make a u-turn and go down the other side of the street to pick up students. Children will live on both sides of a street.

Most school districts have rules about how far students are supposed to have to walk to get to the bus stop, and also about the kinds of streets they need to cross or walk along. It seems that in this case, PG county's own rules stated that students weren't to cross that particular street at that particular location, where there wasn't a crosswalk. They committed to picking up Ashley, as well as other students, on the other side of the street, but never provided a bus to do so.

For example, I commute down a busy section of River Road, close to where it crosses into DC. It appears that MoCo has decided that this street is unsafe for elementary school students to cross, because I see buses heading in both directions in the a.m..

If a school system states that something is unsafe for children, and commits to changing it, then they should follow through on that commitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, a 13 year old cannot cross the street by herself. Interesting. How is it suppose to work? Are the bus operators required to drive down one side of the street and then make a u-turn and go down the other side of the street to pick up students. Children will live on both sides of a street.

As the PP said. There was supposed to be a school bus that picked her up at a bus stop on her side of the street. The driver of the school bus made a habit of not stopping at that school bus stop. So she crossed the street to go to the school bus stop on the other side.

Montgomery County's policy is that elementary school students do not cross "primary roadways" unless there is an adult crossing guard, and that middle and high school students do not cross unless there is a controlled intersection. So yes, there are school bus routes where the bus picks up at stops on one side of the road, then turns and picks up at stops on the other side. I don't know what PG County's policy is on roads students are and are not expected to cross.