Lawsuit filed against Jessieville School District in 2016 pedestrian death
JESSIEVILLE — A wrongful-death lawsuit has been filed against the Jessieville School District three years after a pedestrian was struck and killed by a school bus owned and maintained by the district.
According to an Arkansas State Police report, shortly after 6 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2016, Steven C. Coons, 44, was struck by the mirror of a southbound school bus while walking south on Highway 7 near its junction with Highway 298, partially in the southbound lane. Coons was pronounced dead at the scene.
State police noted the road conditions were dry and clear at the time of the accident.
Three years to the day, a lawsuit was filed in Garland County Circuit Court by Patricia Woolley, administrator of the estate of Coons on behalf of Coons’ beneficiaries.
The lawsuit alleges that on Jan. 4, 2016, Coons’ vehicle ran
out of fuel on Highway 7 north and, after obtaining a container to carry fuel, he began to walk to the nearest gas station. The suit alleges that while walking on the side of the road, Coons was struck in the back of the head by the mirror of the school bus — driven in a “negligent and reckless manner” — causing “instantaneous death.”
The complaint names a separate defendant, Johnny Breckenridge, as the driver of the school bus. According to board minutes on the district’s website, the Jessieville School Board accepted Breckenridge’s resignation on May 9, 2016.
The Jessieville School District set up the Steve C. Coons Family Memorial account for donations to assist the family of Coons just days after the incident in 2016. At that time, former Superintendent Ralph Carter told The Sentinel-Record the Coons family had moved to Jessieville from New York in 2015.
At that time, Carter said Coons became involved in the community and volunteered several times in the elementary school through the Watch DOGS — Dads of Great Students — program.
Jessieville Superintendent Melissa Speers said Wednesday she was not in an administrative position in 2016 during the time of the incident.
“When we received the paperwork on this, we did as we do with anything like this and turned it over to our district’s attorney and they are handling this,” she said.