A special judge has been appointed to hear a lawsuit filed in a van crash that killed workers of Haitian descent from Washington in 2015.
A Vanderburgh County judge will oversee the lawsuit that’s one of several pending in the Gibson County crash. The 16-passenger van was overloaded with 24 people when it left Washington andit blew a tire and overturned along Interstate 69 in Gibson County in September 2015. Two women died and 20 other passengers were injured.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 12 of the passengers, including a 60-year-old woman killed in the crash. It names several defendants, including the van’s owner, his son, and the business where the workers were headed. The driver of the van, James Allen was sentenced last year after pleading guilty to operating while intoxicated causing death.
Many of the passengers were Haitian refugees who were traveling to a factory in Evansville.