Autopsy: Driver that hit bus had taken meth

Two lawsuits have accused trucking company of negligence in deadly wreck

An autopsy report shows the driver of an 18-wheeler who crashed into a school bus carrying members of the Mount Pleasant boys track team earlier this year was positive for methamphetamine.

Bradley Farmer, 49, and a coach, 30-year-old Angelica Beard, who was following the bus in a private car, were killed when Farmer’s big rig veered into the bus’ lane and collided with the bus and Beard’s car. An autopsy report prepared at the Dallas County medical examiner’s office shows Farmer had a methamphetamine level of .19 mg/L.

The team was on its way home from a meet in Paris, Texas, at the time of the crash. According to earlier news reports, more than half of the 34 students on the bus were injured. Since the fatal wreck, two civil lawsuits on behalf of student athletes and their parents have been filed and are now pending in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas federal court.

The suits accuse Missouribased Rooney Trucking of being negligent in various ways but do not mention Bradley’s use of methamphetamine as indicated in his autopsy report. The complaints in those cases can be amended to include additional allegations.

Rooney has filed an answer to one of the suits. The reply 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 complains that the students’ injuries could have been lessened or avoided altogether if the bus had been outfitted with seat belts.

Acuity Mutual Insurance Agency, which issued a commercial auto policy to Rooney Trucking, filed a complaint Thursday asking 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 with the federal court in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas and to abide by the court’s order in dividing the available insurance settlement.

“Acuity believes that dozens of potential claimants exist who are or who will be seeking personal injury and property damages as a result of the accident. At least two lawsuits have already been filed,” Acuity’s complaint states. “Since the accident, Acuity and Rooney have received numerous competing claims to the policy’s proceeds, and Acuity has reason to believe that additional claimants exist, all of whom may eventually seek recovery of the policy’s proceeds. The proceeds of the policy are inadequate to satisfy the claims. Moreover, even if adequate, Acuity does not know how to divide the proceeds among all the claimants.”

The two suits filed on behalf of track team members and their parents, as well as the action filed Thursday by Acuity, are pending before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas.