Truck and school bus collide
Chevy pickup truck and a school bus collided – a DeMotte reserve police officer, Kevin Jones was returning from work when his Chevy pickup truck collided with a school bus. Fortunately, since it was the end of the day, there were no children left on the bus and the driver was not seriously injured. Jones had to be extricated from his crushed truck and rushed to the hospital. In the days that followed, he suffered from the serious back and neck trauma caused by the accident, and endured many reconstructive surgeries. He has lost his job as a union operating engineer and cannot continue to work elsewhere. Even though the Kankakee Valley bus driver claimed the wet roads caused the accident, she is still at fault.
To make matters worse, the amount Jones received in tort claims was not even close to the amount of the cost of his medical care. Jones learned that under the Indiana Tort Claims Act, immunity is granted for certain acts by governmental employees, such as causing an accident while driving a school bus. Under this provision, the state is liable to $500,000 for medical expenses, lost wages and other related costs. A thankful Jones received $250,000 more on January 1, 2008, but has been told that he doesn’t qualify for the additional money necessary to cover his expenses. This is as good as it gets for Jones, because the school bus driver is protected by the state. Although he settled, Jones is unhappy and believes that there needs to be a new cap for catastrophic cases like his. In 2001, the compensation cap was limited to $300,000 It was raised a couple of years later to $500,000, and it now stands at around $750,000. Although monetary recompense hardly minimizes the emotional and physical trauma, it still helps pay the hospital and physical therapy bills.
Many Americans are unaware of these compensation caps, so over the past few months, Jones has consistently contacted his local lawmakers, one of whom is Representative Tom Dermody.
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