Settlement reached in deadly pipe accident on highway

Kim Smith

Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 | 9:42 a.m.

A civil trial pertaining to a deadly crash that took the lives of six people came to an abrupt end Thursday, when the parties agreed to enter a confidential settlement.

The parents of Randy Ledford had brought a negligence suit against the Northwest Pipe Co. alleging one of its employees was to blame for the accident that killed Ledford, his wife, their two children and a Henderson couple.

Ledford, 32, Melissa Ledford, 28, Lonnie Ledford, 9, and Skylar Ledford, 6, were traveling along California State Route 58 on Aug. 2, 1999, when a flatbed truck driving in the opposite direction lost its load of three 30-foot long cement pipes on a sweeping right-hand curve.

The Ledfords, who lived in Redlands, Calif., were killed instantly, as were Manny Vigil, 38, and his wife, Sandy Lee, 51, a Henderson couple traveling in a separate vehicle.

Randall Jones, who represented Ledford's mother, Linda Cozzolino, could not be reached for comment.

Steven Day, who helped represent Northwest Pipe, would only confirm a confidential settlement was reached.

Jones told jurors that Northwest employee Jose Serrano used a short and defective piece of wood to secure the load and it helped cause the spill.

Northwest attorney Skip Hudgins alleged, however that truck driver Richard Sommerville was legally intoxicated at the time of the accident.

The pipes that crushed the victims' vehicles weighed 23 tons. They were water transfer pipes on their way to Nevada for a Las Vegas Water District expansion.

Hudgins said Sommerville allowed two frayed straps to be used to secure his load and he failed to check them 25 miles into the trip -- as required by law.

Moreover, Sommerville told authorities he felt his load sway and his wheels leave the road while crossing the railroad tracks, but he didn't stop to check the load then, either, Hudgins said.

Jurors were not told that Sommerville, 61, was sentenced to eight years in prison in December after pleading guilty to six counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Lawsuits filed by Melissa Ledford's estate and the children of the Vigils were also settled in recent weeks, Day said.