The children of a 74-year-old man who was killed in a traffic crash while on his way to pick up his granddaughter from school has sued Weld County claiming a deputy was recklessly speeding without using sirens when he slammed into the man’s car.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver on behalf of four children of Jose Mercado-Nova. The lawsuit names Weld County, the sheriff’s office and Deputy Timothy Boxley as defendants.
Mercado-Nova’s children are seeking unspecified compensatory damages.
At 3:39 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2015, Boxley was driving north on U.S. Highway 85 at speeds up to without using sirens or emergency lights when he broadsided a car driven by Mercardo-Nova as he crossed the highway at Weld County Road 66. At the time of collision, Boxley was going 88 mph, authorities have calculated.
Mercado-Nova, who had been on his way to New Hope School to pick up his granddaughter, later died of his injuries. As emergency workers attempted to save him, he incurred more than $70,000 in medical costs, the lawsuit says.
Weld County with careless driving resulting in death. A deputy in October of the lesser charge of careless driving and in January he was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 100 hours of community service.
The lawsuit says that Boxley’s driving was an “abuse and misuse of power and position, objectively unreasonable, and done with reckless intent shocking the conscious.”
