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A roadside memorial on U.S. 90 is located where a wreck killed four people in February 2014.
(The Daily Review Photo by Crystal Thielepape)

Families of those killed, injured in wreck sue

By ZACHARY FITZGERALD zfitzgerald@daily-review.com

The relatives of four people, who were killed, and another person injured in February 2014 during a wreck on U.S. 90 near Centerville, are suing the makers of a tire, along with several other defendants, alleging that the tire failed on a midsize SUV, which then crossed the median and hit an oncoming school bus, according to four lawsuits filed in 16th Judicial District Court.
Mark Kentrell Cheatham Sr., on behalf of his deceased and surviving children involved in the crash and Angela Campbell Daniel, on behalf her deceased son, DeWayne Escort, were among those who filed suit Jan. 26 against several parties including manufacturers of the tire and vehicle involved in the crash, according to St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court records.
The driver of the Kia Sorento, Ladonna Cheatham, 36, of Patterson, was killed along with her children, Destiny Cheatham, 6, and Markus Cheatham, 16, and her nephew, Dewayne Escort, 14, after the vehicle they were in collided head-on with a school bus, state police said in February 2014. All were unrestrained and thrown from the vehicle, state police said. Another son, Mark Cheatham Jr., 17, who was restrained, was taken by helicopter to a hospital with moderate injuries, police said.
On Feb. 15, 2014, Ladonna Campbell Cheatham was operating a 2004 Kia Sorento LX vehicle on U.S. 90 near Centerville with minors Destiny Ann-Marie Cheatham, Markus Kendell Cheatham, Mark Kentrell Cheatham Jr. and DeWayne Escort as passengers, the suit stated.
The suit claims that a tire mounted on the left rear position of the vehicle experienced a tread separation failure. Following the tire disablement, the Sorento crossed the median of the divided highway and collided with an oncoming school bus operated by Amy Dore, of Sunset, which was carrying members of a high school baseball team, the suit stated.
In the crash, the injuries to Ladonna Cheatham and minors Destiny Ann-Marie Cheatham, Markus Kendell Cheatham and DeWayne Escort proved fatal, while another minor Mark Kentrell Cheatham Jr. survived but with severe injuries, the suit stated.
At issue in the suit is a Michelin Cross Terrain tire that failed through tread separation while in service, the suit claims.
Also at issue in the suit is the 2004 Kia Sorento LX that the suit claims to have “failed to provide adequate handling characteristics under foreseeable circumstances (a tire disablement) while being driven on a roadway in Louisiana.”
On Feb. 6, DeWayne Lance Escort, the father of DeWayne Escort, also filed suit against Michelin, Kia Motors, Dore, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and several other parties, according to court records.
Dore, who was not injured in the crash, was transporting 30 students and five adults on the bus, state police said. Seven of the students on the bus, all of them teenagers, were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries, police said. Lafayette High School assistant baseball coach Cody Ortego, 23, sustained moderate injuries and was transported to an area hospital, police said.
The bus was totaled in the accident, and according to a gofundme.com page, Dore owed on extensive repairs she made to the bus engine prior to the crash. The page was created “to help Amy (Dore) pay off her repairs and purchase a new bus, Amy is a hero. She maintained control and saved precious lives that day. The least we can do as a community is help her recoup and get her back rollin’,” according to the page.
The suit filed Jan. 26 claims that “the incident was due partly to the negligence of Dore, who had the last opportunity to avoid the collision with the subject vehicle, but negligently failed to use reasonable care and competence in such opportunity to avoid the harm to Petitioners. Specifically, Amy A. Dore was negligent in failing to timely apply her brakes, and such negligence proximately caused the injuries and damages Petitioners complain of herein,” the suit claims.
The suit also claims that the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is at fault because the roadway where the wreck occurred “is unreasonably and dangerously defective in its design.” The DOTD is responsible for designing and maintaining roadways, and the failure of the roadway “to have sufficient median barriers and/or a median barrier system caused the physical injuries to Mark Kentrell Cheatham Jr., as well as the fatal injuries of Ladonna Campbell Cheatham, Destiny Ann-Marie Cheatham, Markus Kendell Cheatham, and DeWayne Escort,” the suit claims.
According to a National Transportation and Safety Board report released in March 2014, the original 10-year-old left rear tire of the 2004 Kia Sorento experienced tread separation, rapid air loss and was cited as a factor in the Feb. 15 fatal crash.
Peter C. Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation and Safety Board, emphasized in March 2014 that the board was not saying the tire failure was the direct or sole cause of the accident.
Also in March 2014, the board’s preliminary report described the condition of the roadway where the crash occurred. That section of U.S. 90 was reconstructed in 1980 and is comprised of two 12-foot-wide lanes in each direction with a 10-foot-wide shoulder adjacent to each right lane, the report stated.
A 4-foot-wide shoulder separates the left lanes from the center median, the report stated. The roadway is straight with no barrier with a posted speed limit of 70 mph. At the time of the collision, the weather was clear and the road conditions were dry, the report said.
According to St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court records, Dore also filed suit Feb. 3 for damages against Kia Motors, Michelin and Ladonna Cheatham’s succession including several more defendants.
Dore’s suit states that the tire from which the tread separated was defective. “Specifically, the subject tire was defective in that it was improperly and inadequately cured, had inadequate bonding between the belts, and had poor adhesion between the steel and rubber components.” The suit also claims the tire also “was unreasonably dangerous in design.”
Dore’s suit claims that “the subject tire was dangerous to an extent beyond that which would have been contemplated by the ordinary user or handler of the subject tire, with the ordinary knowledge common to the community as to the subject tire’s characteristics.”
In Dore’s claims against Kia Motors, the suit stated that “(Ladonna) Cheatham did not know, nor should she have been reasonably expected to know, of the characteristics of the Subject Vehicle that may cause damage and the dangers of such characteristics.”
Later in Dore’s suit, she claims that “the incident was due partly to the negligence of Defendant, Ladonnna Campbell Cheatham, who had a last opportunity to avoid the collision with the school bus, but negligently failed to use reasonable care and competence in such opportunity to avoid Petitioners.”
The suit claims that Dore “was seriously injured as a result of the accident in question.”
On Oct. 24, 2014, the families of several occupants of the school bus involved in the crash filed suit against Michelin, Kia Motors and Cheatham’s succession, according to court records. The plaintiffs named in the suit claim to have suffered and “continue to suffer injuries” as a direct result of the “strict liability acts and negligence” of the defendants.

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