A wrongful death lawsuit alleged that had a police department acted correctly, within two hours of a citizen's report of a drunk driver, it wouldn't have caused the death of a woman in a car accident. As reported by the Billings Gazette, the police department must now pay $222,000 to settle the claim with the woman's widow.
Along with the settlement, the Billings Police Department has also been ordered to provide training to officers as how to handle DUI incidents in the future. The settlement agreement reads that the department must "provide additional training to patrol officers in regards to DUI investigations arising from citizen complaints and using this event and other actual events as a training resource."
Widower J.T. lost his wife, M.T., 59, on February 22, 2010 when she was struck by a vehicle driven by T.J.
Attorney Harlan Krogh represented the city in the lawsuit. The agreed settlement does not admit liability. The Montana Municipal Insurance Authority, the city's insurance company, is expected to pay the settlement.
Steve Harman, J.T.'s attorney, commented, "My hat's off to the chief of police, who agreed to do something beyond the payment. In other words, they are willing to learn from their mistakes and use this as a training tool."
Police Chief Rich St. John said he would work things out for the training with both the city and county attorneys. St. John commented, "Times have changed, we recognize that we have to adapt. We stress people to call (to report drunken drivers) and it's incumbent on us to act on it. It's something we should have probably been paying more attention to, and unfortunately we had this situation."
The "situation" referred to by St. John ended at approximately 6:50 p.m. on February 22 when T.J. ran a red light and crashed her car. However, two hours before that, three officers were called to an apartment building because of a drunk driver. T.J. had driven her truck into a snow bank and couldn't get herself out.
T.J., still in the truck though a friend had removed the car keys, was released to the friend to take her home. No arrest was made.
Third-party complaints have since been filed by the city against T.J., and the friend that had driven her home, K.D.
K.D.'s insurance company, according to Harman, made a confidential settlement.
T.J. has not contributed to the settlement and is currently in jail serving a 20-year sentence – she was found guilty of vehicular homicide.
According to St. John, there hadn't been a lot of credence given to citizen's reports of drunk drivers in the past because it can be difficult to make a valid arrest and gain a conviction.
Whether killed by a drunk driver or a sober one, if you have lost a loved one due to the negligence of another party contact a personal injury attorney to file your lawsuit. A wrongful death scenario allows you to sue for your damages, and insure that changes are made to prevent further calamities.