Wrongful death lawsuit filed after wreck involving Phenix City school bus killed student
Two months after law enforcement authorities decided to not pursue any criminal charges in the case, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed to seek damages stemming from the Phenix City school bus crash that killed the Central High School senior class president.
Christopher Rogers, 17, of Fort Mitchell, died in Piedmont Columbus Regional’s midtown hospital Aug. 13, four days after sustaining blunt force trauma in the crash.
His father, Michael Rogers, sued bus driver Richard Towles Smith, the City of Phenix City and the Phenix City Board of Education in Russell County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
The lawsuit alleges the “wrongful, negligent and/or wanton conduct” of the defendants “combined and concurred to proximately cause” the death of Christopher and the injuries and damages to his sister, Ashley Rogers, the lone passenger in the car he was driving.
No specific dollar amount is mentioned in the lawsuit, other than claims totaling more than $20,000.
Ashley’s injuries also aren’t specified, although the lawsuit says she was “permanently injured” and those injuries will require medical expenses “in the future.”
The bus had three students and one monitor along with the driver, Phenix City Schools superintendent Randy Wilkes told the Ledger-Enquirer in August. No injuries among the passengers and driver of the bus were reported.
Smith has retired after working 14 years for the school system, Wilkes said in December.
“Mr. Richard Smith was an exemplary employee,” Wilkes told the L-E then. “While working with Phenix City Schools, he was a kind, genuine and compassionate person.”
The accident happened Aug. 9. Chris was driving south on Highway 165 in a 2012 Ford Focus around 4:30 p.m., when the bus turned onto the highway from Misty Forest Drive, at the entrance to the Misty Forest subdivision, according to a news release from the Phenix City Police Department in August.
The support for Chris was so strong that his funeral was conducted across the Chattahoochee River at Cascade Hills Church in Columbus to accommodate the crowd.
A GoFundMe account surpassed its $5,000 goal to help his immediate family pay for the funeral and his extended family to pay for travel expenses to attend.
Smith and the lawyer for the school board, Robert Meadows, weren’t reached for comment before this story’s deadline.
Jim McKoon, the lawyer representing the city, told the Ledger-Enquirer in a voicemail Thursday, “The city feels like it has no responsibility in the accident because the person who was involved is not a city employee. … All the city does is appoint the school board. We don’t have anything to do with the operation of the school board or the funding or budget of it.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 10:17 AM.
