CLARKSVILLE, TN (WKRN) — The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System is asking a federal court to cap any damages awarded to the families of the victims in the deadly March school bus crash, and then to disperse those damages among the families.

In a new complaint filed late last month in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the school system acknowledged they would not have sovereign immunity in the case. But CMCSS said any damages awarded to the families currently suing the district over the crash are capped at $700,000 by state law.

However, the district said in the filing, the claims that it anticipates to be made by victims’ families will likely exceed the statutory $700,000 cap.

“CMCSS faces multiple, competing claims for money damages from a limited fund,” the district wrote in the complaint, noting that any one of the claims would eliminate funding for the others if awarded, thus leaving the district, “exposed to the risk of multiple and inconsistent judgments and to litigation in multiple forums that, in the aggregate, could exceed the statutory cap.”

The district said it “has no interest in how the limited fund is allocated among” all the parties currently suing them for damages related to the crash.

They asked the court to take control of the $700,000 sum and disperse it among all the victims and prevent them from being able to sue the district over the matter again; they also ask the court to release the district from any further liability related to the crash.

What happened in school bus crash

The new filing stems from the March 27 crash in Carroll County. At around noon that day, a bus transporting students from Kenwood Middle School to the Toyota Hub City Grand Prix Greenpower USA Race at the Jackson Rockabilly Stadium crossed lanes into oncoming traffic and crashed into a Tennessee Department of Transportation dump truck and a Chevrolet Trailblazer.

Two eighth-grade students – Zoe Davis and Arianna Pearson – died at the scene, and at least seven people, including 45-year-old driver Sabrina Ducksworth, were injured in the crash.

Ducksworth has since been indicted on charges related to the crash, including failure to exercise due care and driving on roadways laned for traffic.

WKRN-News2 is a Clarksville Now news partner.

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