A second trial will most likely not be needed to determine compensation for nine passengers injured on a 2013 Roaring Fork Transportation Authority bus crash.
Jeff Wertz, lead council for the plaintiffs, says last week’s trial could have been avoided had the defendants accepted responsibility and settled with the injured passengers in the first place. A second trial could be scheduled to assign compensation to the passengers, but based on Friday’s verdict, Wertz expects settlements.
“I’d like to think that we’d get more than the lip service we’ve gotten for two years” said Wertz, “I really didn't see (the trial) as necessary.”
The jury put 50 percent of the fault on RFTA bus driver Jamie Nunez, forty five percent on Travis Wingfield for driving a tractor on the highway, and five percent on Ted Potter, the tractor owner who did not have it outfitted with a legally-required reflective caution sign.
