Three members of a Canadian ice hockey team will receive $2.25 million in compensation for injuries suffered in 2005 in a fatal New York bus crash.
Windsor Wildcats players Carly Labadie and Tory Gault, along with assistant coach Jason Mailloux, will split the compensation following a six-day jury trial in New York state.
Labadie was awarded $1 million in damages, Gault $500,000 and Mailloux $750,000. All three were found to have suffered personal injuries as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The team’s injury lawyer, Moshe Horn, said: “The verdict demonstrates how seriously the jury was moved by the experiences of having witnessed the deaths of their close friends and teammates.
“While (they) were fortunate to have survived the crash, their lives haven’t been the same since.”
Four people died in the accident on 29 January, 2005, which happened when a bus taking the Wildcats Intermediate BB Women’s hockey team to a ski hill in New York smashed into a tractor-trailer illegally parked on the side of Interstate 390. A further 16 people were injured.
The force of the impact almost sliced the bus in half, with the driver’s side mostly surviving intact while the other side was obliterated.
Bus company Coach Canada admitted liability for 90 per cent of the crash and the company that owned the tractor-trailer, J&J Hauling Inc, took responsibility for the remaining 10 per cent.
Several other compensation claims involving members of the team are still awaiting trial.
