Uconn Student's Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settled For $1M

Uconn Student's Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settled For $1M

Introduction

A wrongful death lawsuit for about $1 million has been settled in a case involving a UConn student who was run over and killed by a campus fire department truck in 2016. Authorities said that the 19-year-old sophomore from West Hartford fell asleep in front of a fire department garage door after drinking alcohol in an off-campus party when a fire truck drove over her. A footage surveillance camera at the campus shows that the victim fell on the ground due to the overconsumption of alcohol when the fire truck driver drove the truck over her. The truck driver was rushing to answer the emergency call of dormitory fire when he bumped the victim. Initially, the driver stopped at the first contact of the truck with the victim but thought that he might have driven upon a piece of equipment. The victim's parents filed a lawsuit against the state, the fire department driver, and the Kappa Sigma fraternity for the accident. The jury dismissed the civil allegations against the driver of the truck. The truck driver is not held responsible for the accident any more as he did not commit the accident intentionally and was focused on responding to a reported dormitory fire. A Wayne County jury awarded over $8 million to the family of a victim against the Northville Moose Lodge and Leonard's Syrups for a wrongful death lawsuit. As per the court documents, the victim was a Moose Lodge volunteer. He went to the basement of the Moose Lodge to change soda pop syrup cartons, which were connected to the malfunctioning pump. The pump discharged an entire tank of carbon dioxide into the basement. This resulted in severe brain damage for the victim and he died five days later from lack of oxygen. The investigation report of the police and MOISHA stated that the pump was negligently installed without venting C02 outside of the building by a hose and was responsible for this preventable tragedy.