Mom Sues School, Others After Girl Falls From Parade Float
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The mother of a girl who was injured when she fell from a parade float during homecoming in 2013 has filed a lawsuit claiming negligence by her daughter’s tribal school, the police and others.
In the lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Pierre, Tamaleon Wilcox says her daughter fell from the float when it suddenly accelerated, and that the flatbed trailer ran over the girl’s legs and ankle.
The lawsuit says the St. Francis Indian School float was pulled by a Rosebud Police Department vehicle driven by Officer Daniel Reynolds. The girl, who was a junior high school student at the time, suffered a broken leg and other injuries. She is not named in the lawsuit.
Wilcox, of Mission, says the school, the police department and Reynolds “breached the duty owed to (her daughter) when Defendant Reynolds stepped on the gas to catch up with other parade floats” causing the student to “fall off the float and onto the roadway where the tires from the flatbed trailer then ran over her legs and ankle.”
The federal government is listed as a defendant. Wilcox wants the government to pay treatment costs, which the lawsuit says were in excess of $30,000. She also asks for a sum to “fully compensate” for the distress caused to her daughter.
The Associated Press sent an email to the U.S. Attorney’s office seeking comment Friday.
Wilcox initially sought $3 million in compensation under the Federal Tort Claims Act — a civil procedure that requires a person to file a claim with the government and prevents them from suing until the claim is resolved — but the U.S. Department of Interior denied the request in February.
