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$2.2 Million Settlement Calls For Stricter Safety Ops

An Oregon beverage company will beef up its safety operations as part of a $2.2 million settlement with the family of a girl killed in a hit-and-run accident

by Staff
September 13, 2001
1 min to read


An Oregon beverage company will beef up its safety operations as part of a $2.2 million settlement with the family of a girl killed in a hit-and-run accident.

According to the Associated Press, Lee Russel Stubbs was driving a Mount Hood Beverage Co. delivery van when he hit 12-year-old Katie Lovelace in June 2000. Stubbs drove away and later said he'd hit a deer. He even put deer hair on the damaged front of the van. Stubbs was sentenced to more than three years in prison, and the family sued the company.
Stubbs, it was found, had lost his license twice, had been cited for reckless driving, and had six speeding tickets.
The $2.2 million settlement also calls for Mount Hood Beverage Co. to hire a full-time risk and safety manager, provide special training in fleet management and safety for all managers, and apply stricter federal safety regulations governing large commercial trucks to all trucks in its fleet, including delivery vans like the one Stubbs was driving at the time of the accident.

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