NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

Parents File Lawsuits Over Bus Crash
February 7, 2007

Parents of two of the 17 youngsters hurt in last month's crash of a Grant County school bus filed suits Tuesday alleging negligence by the school district and bus driver Angelynna Young, who the district confirmed has since been fired.

Northern Kentucky attorneys Eric Deters and Phil Taliaferro each filed suit in Grant County on behalf of Grant County Middle School students, Jake Clise and Abby Brinker, and their parents.

Clise, 14, was one of the most seriously injured of the students riding on the bus Jan. 17 on U.S. 25 near Sherman.

Brinker, 11, was among 16 other students riding in the vehicle who were treated at hospitals after the accident.

One student, Cody Shively, 12, remains hospitalized in critical condition at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati.

The bus was taking the students to Grant County Middle School when it ran off U.S. 25 and the rear driver's side of the vehicle cracked into a utility pole.

Young, also known as Angelynna Young-Howe, has not been charged in connection with the accident. But an attorney for the school district confirmed Tuesday that she had been terminated following the crash.

Young is facing drug charges in Grant County relating to illegal substances police said they found at her apartment while executing a search warrant.

The warrant was obtained after lab tests following the crash on Young's body fluids revealed traces of drugs, according to C. Ed Massey, an attorney who represented her at a preliminary hearing this week in Grant County before bowing out of the case.

Few other details about Young or the investigation into the January crash have been made public because two Grant County judges sealed all records related to the case.

Nonetheless, Deters and Taliaferro feel they have enough evidence to file suit on behalf of two of the students involved in the crash, and their parents.

Jake Clise's father, Richard, and Abby Brinker's mother, Becky, are married, and filed suit on behalf of themselves and their two children through Taliaferro.

Jake Clise's mother, Stacey Clise, also filed suit in Grant County Tuesday on behalf of her son and herself, with Deters representing them.

Don Ruberg, a Crestview Hills attorney representing the Grant County school board, did not return phone calls Tuesday seeking comment on the suits. But he did confirm in an e-mail that Young was terminated.

Stacey Clise's suit names Young, as well as Grant County School Superintendent Don Martin and the county's five school board members, as defendants. The suit claims that the defendants were negligent in their duties and contends that board members are liable for injuries Jake suffered in the crash because they "failed in their screening, hiring and supervision" of Young.

The suit filed by Richard and Becky Clise names the bus driver, as well as the board of education, Transportation Director Dick Humphrey and Deputy Superintendent of Operations Kenneth Gray.

The Clises' suit alleges that Young "was driving while under the influence of illegal substances which impaired her ability ... and proximately caused the bus to collide with the utility pole."

The suit says the board of education, Gray and Humphrey received complaints prior to the crash about Young's "unsafe driving habits, her intentional disregard for the safety and welfare of the students entrusted to her care, and her fitness for the position of school bus driver."

Taliaferro filed a request for documents and other evidence related to the case in Grant Circuit Court.

Deters said the suits should help to get some of the investigatory findings about the crash out in the open.

"One good thing about filing this lawsuit ... is that it gives us power, through subpoena and the discovery process, to find out all the details," Deters said.

"So, I anticipate we'll find out much more ... once we get hold of some of those records."

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