NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – A wrongful death lawsuit seeking at least $1 million in damages has been filed by the son of one of the 13 victims killed March 29 in a fatal head-on collision near Garner State Park.
It is the first legal action filed by family members in the wake of the tragedy involving members of the First Baptist Church in New Braunfels who were leaving a retreat in Leakey.
Attorney Charles Sullivan said his client, Ross Allen, filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and his father’s estate because it was what 81-year-old Howard Allen would have wanted.
“He knew that his father wanted people to be held morally responsible and financially responsible,” Sullivan said.
The lawsuit is against the 20-year-old driver of the pickup truck, Jack Dillon Young, and his father, Joseph Benjamin Young, who are both from Leakey. It accuses Jack Young of gross negligence because he’d been texting and was allegedly intoxicated by marijuana and prescription drugs.
The toxicology results and the outcome of the criminal investigation are pending. A witness took video of Jack Young swerving in and out of traffic while texting and driving.
Young’s father was named in the lawsuit because allegedly “He knew of his son’s prescription and illicit drug use and propensity to text while operating his truck.”
Sullivan said one of the reasons Ross Allen filed the lawsuit was because Texas is one of only four states without a statewide ban on texting and driving.
The legal filing on Monday pleads with the Texas Legislature “to pass no-texting-while-driving legislation currently being considered and that the Governor promptly sign the bill once it passes. It will save lives.”
Prior attempts to pass similar legislation died in the Senate twice, and in 2011, then Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the bill.
Now, House Bill 62, which went from the House to the Senate in March, is waiting on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to schedule a hearing in the State Affairs Committee. Patrick now supports the ban after previously voting against it.
If it passes out of committee, it will head to the full Senate for a vote.
Both House Bill 62 and Senate Bill 31 in the Senate are essentially the same. They make texting while driving a misdemeanor, with a fine of $99 and up to $200 if it’s a repeat offense. But if injury or death results, Sullivan said, “The District Attorney’s offices that prosecute the cases, then can enhance the offense because they already are violating the law.”
As for the chances of the latest ban being adopted, Sullivan said, “I certainly hope so, and I believe that it will.”
Sullivan said his client doesn’t want his father to have died in vain.