BRANSON MO NEWS: A pair of lawsuits were filed against Stone County last week regarding a fatality crash three years ago, bring the total number of lawsuits to four.
The wreck, on Pleasant View Road, about four miles west of Highlandville, killed four teenagers.
Among the dead were Logan A. Middleton, 19, of Nixa, and Lance D. Porterfield, 19, of Sparta. The two newest suits were filed by family members of those two teens. Also killed in the crash were Landon C. Potts, 17, whose family filed a lawsuit in Stone County Court in May, and Cody R. Uber, whose family was the first to file suit over the incident, in 2015, and whose case was transferred to Lawrence County where it is scheduled for a jury trial May 21, 2018.
According to a Branson Tri-Lakes News story about the Nov. 26, 2014 crash, a Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report stated that a southbound pickup, driven by Potts, ran off the left side of the road and struck a tree.
Middleton, Porterfield and Uber were passengers in the truck. Four other passengers – William Ramage, of Nixa, and Dylan Wright, of Ozark, both 19, were taken to a hospital with injuries; and Wyatt Beebe and Tyler R. Rollins, both 18-year-olds from Nixa, suffered minor injuries and were not taken to a hospital.
The new lawsuits state in their petitions that “Pleasant View Road was in a dangerous condition at the time of the crash” for several reasons, including that there was a downgrade of 1,000 feet prior to the curve where Potts lost control; there were no signs warning of the steep grade or the curve; there were no signs advising motorists of a safe speed; the radius of the curve is not sufficient; and the superelevation of the curve is not sufficient.
The petitions, which are nearly identical, state Stone County officials …
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