Families of six teens killed while clearing roadside sue

Kim Smith

Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 10:33 a.m.

The families of six teens killed as they were picking up trash along Interstate 15 in March have filed a lawsuit against Clark County, Republic Services and the driver of the van that hit them.

The teens were on the highway fulfilling a requirement of their probation under Clark County's Department of Family and Youth Services.

The county had a contract with Republic Services to pick up refuse that blows out of their trash trucks on their way to the Apex landfill. According to the lawsuit, which was filed late Thursday, Clark County failed to train the teenagers and provide barricades and cones. Nor did the county inform the teenagers' parents about where the teens would be performing their community service work.

The county violated federal, state and local standards for crews on highways, the lawsuit states.

Republic Services, the lawsuit states, "could reasonably foresee that serious injury or death could occur" to anyone who would attempt to clean up the refuse that blew off their trash trucks along I-15.

The distribution of trash along the highway "created a public nuisance" and Republic Services had been cited for it by the Nevada Highway Patrol in the past, but the company did nothing to keep it from blowing off its trucks, the lawsuit alleges.

A Republic Service representative referred all calls to Lee Haney, the vice president of Rogich Communication Group. Haney was unavailable for comment this morning.

Doug Bradford, director of the county's public communications department, was also unavailable this morning.

The driver of the van that struck the children, Jessica Williams, was also named in the lawsuit. According to police, the 21-year-old was under the influence of marijuana and the drug Ecstasy when she fell asleep at the wheel and drifted into the median where the teens were working.