BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe stemming from a road washout nearly three years ago that killed two people and injured two others.
Heavy rain in July 2019 washed away a section of roadway on the Standing Rock reservation. In the dark hours of the early morning, Trudy Peterson and Jim VanderWal, both of Mobridge, South Dakota, unknowingly drove their vehicles into a deep culvert where the road washed away and were killed.
Steven Willard and Evan Thompson, both of Fort Yates, were injured and flown to Bismarck hospitals for treatment of injuries their attorney said are permanent.
The victims’ families sought $10 million in damages for wrongful death and personal injury.
Their attorney, Tim Purdon, said in their lawsuit that the BIA had adopted road maintenance standards from the transportation departments of North Dakota and South Dakota and argued that the washout could have been avoided if the BIA had adhered to those standards, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
In a ruling this week, Judge Daniel Hovland said the tribe and BIA had no mandatory rules, regulations, policies or procedures to follow in deciding whether to replace the culvert above the road that eventually washed away.
The BIA and tribe had the discretion to determine when, where, and how to perform road maintenance, and is therefore shielded from liability Hovland said.
