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A survivor of the
1998 washout on Highway 166 and the family of a man who died in
the incident have settled their lawsuits with the state, as their
attorneys prepared for a jury trial later this month.
Steve
Miller, a 47-year-old department store manager at the time of the
washout, has settled for $975,000 for injuries he sustained.
Meanwhile, the father of Michael Tye -- the Nipomo resident whose
body was never recovered from the washout -- settled for $95,000
in July.
The early morning
washout on Feb. 24, 1998, killed CHP officers Rick Stovall and
Britt Irvine and carried away Tye's pickup. Miller was rescued by
a helicopter as he stood atop a small sandy knoll in the middle of
the river.
Miller of
Santa Maria was traveling home after working for more than a week
in Ventura. His attorney, Jude Basile, said Thursday that Miller
suffered a fractured vertebra and hypothermia in the incident.
Miller
filed a lawsuit in the summer of 1999 for damages from the
injuries, which later forced him to quit his job as a manager with
Robinsons-May department store, Basile said.
The
family of Michael Tye filed a wrongful death suit around the same
time.
Both attorneys were set to
take their cases to trial on Aug. 20. Michael's father, James Tye,
opted out because he didn't feel that he could handle what would
have been a lengthy trial, according to James McKiernan,
attorney for the Tye family.
Basile
said state attorneys called his client a week ago to initiate
settlement talks, and Miller ultimately settled for $975,000.
"The
settlement was against my recommendations," Basile said. "I wanted
the story to be told in court, since the whole community was
affected by this. I wanted a jury to do it justice.
"Steve is
a very quiet guy, and when they got to these kinds of numbers, he
knew he could structure the money in a way that he could move on
and put all of this behind him."
Basile
said Miller's settlement was official as of Wednesday.
State
attorneys did not return phone calls for comment on the
settlements Thursday.
by TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO
- The Highway 166 washout on Feb. 24, 1998, killed two CHP
officers and a Nipomo resident, whose body was never recovered.
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