Wake school system pays $75,000 to student who was hit by a car while catching the bus

The Wake County school system has agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a student who was seriously injured when he was struck by a car in 2014 while trying to catch a school bus.

Michael Burgess was an 11-year-old, sixth-grade student at West Lake Middle School near Apex in September 2014 when he suffered multiple injuries trying to cross the road to catch the bus. The family had accused Wake of putting the bus stop in an unsafe location, but there’s no admission of responsibility in the settlement announced Tuesday night by school officials.

“The district emphatically denies any negligence, and this denial is included in the settlement agreement,” Jonathan Blumberg, the school board’s attorney, said in an email message Wednesday. “The school district settled the matter to avoid the cost of protracted litigation and in recognition of the fact the plaintiff did suffer serious injuries.”

The family is glad that the school system stepped up to settle the lawsuit, according to T. Shawn Howard, an attorney for the Burgess family.

“We’re pleased with the result for Michael,” Howard said Wednesday. “It was a difficult case for the school system.

“It was a tragic, tragic event, and Michael fortunately bounced back better than I expected.”

It was before dawn four years ago when Burgess crossed Johnson Pond Road to catch a northbound school bus. Before he could reach the bus, he was hit in the southbound lane by a vehicle driven by Lindsey Tight, then 16.

A neighbor described waking up to a “big old boom.” The lawsuit says Burgess’ foot and ankle were caught underneath Tight’s vehicle before he was propelled into the air and landed in a drainage ditch.

The lawsuit says Burgess suffered physical and psychological injuries, including an orbital right bone fracture, multiple right ankle fractures, a concussion, closed head injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Court records show that Tight entered a plea of responsible for failure to reduce speed. A charge of failing to stop for a school bus was dismissed.

Tight, multiple school officials and the school district were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Wake County Superior Court in April 2017. Howard said Tight settled already and that a separate case before the N.C. Industrial Commission over the accident is ongoing.

In the lawsuit, the family had blamed the accident on how a shortage of bus drivers forced Wake to make multiple changes in recent years, including reducing the number of buses on the road and changing routes and stop locations.

Wake still uses the bus stop near where the accident occurred at Johnson Pond Road and Oak Park Drive.

This school year, Wake credited an aggressive recruiting campaign and higher pay with being able to have enough bus drivers for every bus on the road. But Wake still has 150 fewer buses on the road than four years ago.

This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 3:39 PM.