Judge plans to distribute insurance payout to 2015 OSU parade victims
STILLWATER — Adacia Chambers’ car insurance provider at the time she drove into a crowd during the 2015 Oklahoma State University homecoming parade has asked a judge distribute $100,000 from her policy’s liability coverage to dozens of victims.
Farmers Insurance Company Inc. filed the request earlier this year in Payne County District Court.
At an August hearing, a judge is expected to decide how to divide the money among the more than 50 individual victims and about a dozen medical care and insurance providers listed on the petition.
“Nobody’s going to get a lot of money,” said Mark Smiling, the attorney representing Farmers.
Smiling said this is common when dealing with tragic accidents where there is not enough insurance proceeds to pay all of the damages.
“It’s totally up to the judge’s discretion how he’s going to divide those proceeds,” Smiling told
The Oklahoman Thursday.
Chambers, now 27, pleaded no contest in January to four counts of second-degree murder and 39 counts of assault and battery by means or force likely to produce death. As part of a plea deal, she was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years.
Chambers drove through police barricades and into a crowd about 10:30 a.m. Oct. 24, 2015, at Main Street and Hall of Fame Avenue in Stillwater, police reported.
The victims incurred medical expenses ranging from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the petition. Chambers’ liability coverage capped at $100,000 for bodily injury and $50,000 for property damage, according to the petition.
“Most of your carriers don’t write huge policies on young people,” Smiling said. “She had a little more than the minimum, but not enough there to cover all the damages.”
Farmers already paid more than $37,000 to the city of Stillwater for a motorcycle and equipment that was damaged. The remaining $12,537 in coverage for property damage also will be divided up by the judge.
Smiling said he hopes this incident will educate people on the importance of having uninsured/ underinsured motorist coverage. He said several of the victims did have such coverage that paid part of their damages.
Killed in the crash were Marvin Stone, 65, a retired OSU professor; his wife, Bonnie Stone, 65, an OSU employee; Nikita Nakal, 23, a University of Central Oklahoma graduate student; and Nash Lucas, 2, the son of an OSU student.
A husband and wife from Skiatook filed separate personal injury lawsuits against Chambers exactly one year after the crash. The couple, Leo and Sharon Schmitz, are seeking more than $1 million in damages. Their cases are pending.