Family Awarded $90M in Wrongful Death Suit Against School
A Maryland family has been awarded $90 million in a wrongful death suit following an accident that resulted in the death of their 13-year-old daughter.
Ashley Davis, a freshman at Crossland High School, was walking to the school bus stop in 2009. While crossing the street that separated her house from the stop, she was struck by a car. Other classmates, who were waiting at the stop, witnessed the crash. After two weeks in the hospital, suffering from catastrophic injury, the young girl passed away.
Davis' parents responded by filing a wrongful death suit against Prince George's County School Board. In the suit, the parents claimed that the school had promised to adopt a safer policy for school transportation, but failed to follow through.
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"The school board was negligent," John Costello, the lawyer for the family, told NBC. "They had adopted a policy to provide for safe transportation. The policy was they were going to pick up Ashley on her own side of the street. They never did. They forced her to cross the street. She got killed crossing the street."
It was announced Monday that a 6-person jury awarded the Davis family $90 million in the suit. Costello said the school has plans to appeal the court's decision, according to the Associated Press.
"She was on her way," the mother, Nycole Davis, told NBC. "She was doing the right thing. She was going to school. She was a good girl. She didn't deserve this."
Nycole added that her daughter would have been finishing off high school this year.
"If she didn't have to cross the street … she'd be graduating this year," her mother said. "She'd be going to prom this year."
Mrs. Davis was incessant about the fact that she was not necessarily seeking money from the lawsuit.
"I didn't ask anyone to give me any money or anything like that," she said. "I just want someone held responsible for what happened to my daughter."
