Mother of girl killed in school bus crash sues

BOWLING GREEN, Mo. (AP) -- The mother of a teenager who died when a school bus slammed into a road crew's dump truck, also killing that truck's driver, has sued this eastern Missouri city and the school district.

Michelle Griffith's St. Charles County lawsuit seeks at least $25,000 apiece from the city of Bowling Green, the Bowling Green School District and Alliance Water Resources Inc., a Columbia-based contractor for Bowling Green.

Griffith's 15-year-old daughter Samantha was killed Feb. 25 when the bus on which she was riding hit, at highway speed, a stopped, asphalt-loaded dump truck on the business loop of U.S. 54 in Bowling Green, about 80 miles northwest of St. Louis.

Samantha, a Bowling Green High School freshman, died at the scene. The dump truck's driver, Alliance worker Keith Breshears, 48, died later at a hospital. Both were from the Bowling Green area.

At least two dozen other students were taken to other hospitals, mostly with minor injuries.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol later ruled that the bus' 66-year-old driver, Joseph Ross, caused the crash.

The lawsuit, filed June 30, accuses Ross of not keeping a proper lookout and for driving at an excessive speed. It also alleges that the truck was stopped in the traffic lane without warning other motorists or activating the truck's emergency flashers.

The Griffith family's attorney, Bowling Green R-1 Schools Superintendent Greg Berlin and Bowling Green's mayor did not return telephone messages Wednesday.

Dick Tuttle, Alliance Water Resources' operations chief, declined specific comment, saying the company received the lawsuit Tuesday.

"At this point, it's with our attorneys," he said.