Couple’s family sues over highway deaths

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1999 | 10:32 a.m.

The heirs of a Henderson couple crushed to death when massive concrete pipes fell off the back of a flatbed truck on Aug. 2 near Boron, Calif., have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Clark County District Court.

The children of Sandra Lee Vigil, 38, and Manuel Vigil II, 51, filed the lawsuit against First Class Services Trucking Inc., Northwest Pipe Co., and the truck's driver, Richard Sommerville.

The legal action contends the pipes were improperly strapped and broke loose on the truck as it traveled around a curve along a remote section of two-lane State Route 58 near Barstow.

When the pipes broke free and hit the Vigils' car, they propelled it back 200 feet and crushed it, according to the lawsuit filed through Las Vegas attorneys Randy Mainor and Gregory Hafen.

The impact also resulted in the car bursting into flames.

The lawsuit charges that Sommerville had a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 percent "which is beyond the level of presumed intoxication for motor carriers" under federal law and regulations.

Unspecified compensatory and punitive damages are being sought.

Not included in the lawsuit are the heirs of a California family of four also killed when one of the pipes slammed into their minivan.

The Redlands, Calif., family of Randy Ledford, 32; his wife, Melissa, 25; their son, Lonny, 9; and daughter, Skyler, 6 were returning home from visiting family in Livingston, Calif., when the 7 1/2-ton rolling pipes destroyed their 1994 Nissan Quest minivan.