NORTH PLATTE, Neb.—A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit that said dust from a western Nebraska ranch helped cause an interstate pileup that killed three people.
Terms of the settlement were not released.
The families of two Colorado women killed in the 2005 crash on Interstate 80 sued the U-Cross Ranch, which is near Hershey, in Lincoln County District Court in 2006. The lawsuit said the ranch did not take proper steps to prevent dust from blowing across the interstate and creating a driving hazard.
U-Cross owners countersued last year, calling the families’ lawsuit frivolous.
Authorities had said Jeanne Kerechanin, 54, and Pamela Hartman, 46, of Manitou Springs, Colo., were killed on March 10, 2005. Investigators say Kerechanin was driving the car carrying the two women when she slowed on I-80 to avoid semitrailers in front of her and was rear-ended by another semi. The semi driver, 70-year-old John Latham of Springfield, Neb., also died in the crash.
Messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press for Dan Chesire of Omaha, attorney for the ranch, and Martin Troshynski of North Platte, the attorney for the Colorado families, were not immediately returned.
Three trucking companies and their drivers have also been sued in the matter, but were not part of the settlement announced Tuesday.
The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial Tuesday but was settled before it began.
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Information from: KOOQ-AM
