State to pay $12 million in quadruple fatality
The State of New York was found to be responsible to the three surviving children of an Amherst couple killed with two of their children in a crash on the Thruway in Lancaster. In an unprecedented step, Mr. Letro and his team had the NYS Thruway, one of the busiest interstate highways in the United States, shut down for several miles to allow a team of private surveyors to inspect the road. The surveyors found defects in the road's surface that directly led to the vehicle's loss of control. Judge John Lane of the New York State Court of Claims found the New York State Thruway’s failure to inspect and maintain a portion of the toll road near Lancaster to be 100% responsible for the crash. The judge ruled that the Thruway Authority failed to properly inspect and maintain that section of the road, and that the poor maintenance caused the victim/driver to lose control of the car.
