PSTA to pay in paralysis lawsuit

A boy was hit by a car and paralyzed while getting off a PSTA bus at his school. The authority will pay $1.25-million.

By ANITA KUMAR

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 11, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Lawyers for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority tentatively agreed Monday to pay a teenager and his mother $1.25-million for a 1993 car accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

Jonathan Wrye, 11 at the time of the accident, was hit by a car after he got off a PSTA bus and began crossing the street to Southside Fundamental School, one of a handful of fundamental Pinellas County schools that do not offer school bus service.

Lawyers defending others sued by the Wryes -- including the Pinellas County School Board -- were stunned Monday at the proposed settlement. As recently as Thursday, PSTA had not offered to pay one cent. "That's a substantial amount," School Board attorney John Bowen said.

"It's very strange what's going on," Jim Thompson Jr., one of attorneys hired by the school system. "We were sure we were going to trial."

Transit authority attorneys and executive director Roger Sweeney did not return phone calls Monday.

Monday's proposed settlement still must be approved by the PSTA board April 26. But because PSTA has its own insurance policy, the agreement does not need to be approved by state legislators as it would for most other public entities, such as the school system.

By reaching a settlement, PSTA avoids defending itself during an eight-day trial that was expected to start Monday in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court.

The suit against the School Board and Emaniel and Karen Boose, the owner and driver of the car that struck Jonathan, is pending but the trial was postponed. The School Board has refused to pay anything, Bowen said.

Circuit Court Judge Frank Quesada said he agreed to postpone the trial after he received a call from a PSTA attorney telling him the authority was willing to pay $1.25-million. The proposed settlement could have an impact on the other defendants.

Wrye, formerly a student at Baypoint Middle School, started attending Southside Fundamental a month before the accident. The sixth-grader regularly took a PSTA bus to school.

He was struck by a car at 8:10 a.m. on May 5, 1993, when he got off the bus at 18th Avenue S near 10th Street. He crossed in front of the bus -- as students are taught to do with school buses -- and walked north crossing 18th Avenue S.

Karen Boose, driving a car owned by Emaniel Boose, had passed the bus on the left when she hit Jonathan. He was taken to All Children's Hospital.

Kent Whittemore, Wrye's attorney, would not comment on the accident or the settlement offer.

Jonathan, now 18 and living in St. Petersburg, said he graduated from Lakewood High School last year and is attending the music program at St. Petersburg Junior College. He said his attorneys asked him not to comment until the entire case was over.

In 1994, he and his mother, Mary, who has since married Daniel Roman, filed a suit alleging negligence and breach of contract.

According to the suit, PSTA and the School Board had a program in which students from sixth to 12th grades regularly rode public buses to school using a student ID card that allowed reduced fares. They should have known that many students had experience with school buses and were trained to cross the street in front of the bus while other traffic stopped for them.

The school system does not provide bus service to the 3,186 students who attend the seven fundamental schools -- five elementary schools and two middle schools, including Southside. Chris Lowry, director of the district's magnet and fundamental programs, said most children are brought to school by their parents. PSTA does not keep count of the exact number who use public transportation.

Bowen said PSTA's settlement did not change the school system's opinion about its role.

"We don't see this as a case of liability for the School Board," Bowen said. "We do not have a duty to train all students about riding public transportation."

Bryant Boydstun, attorney for the Booses, said his clients are willing to settle but he and the Wryes have not been able to agree on an amount.

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