Two lawsuits were filed Monday regarding a fatal 2018 wreck on U.S. 98 that followed a police chase when the driver avoided a roadblock.
In one case, Curtis Floyd of Pike County alleges the wrongful death of his son, LaCurtis Floyd, a passenger in a car driven by Kevin M. Allen.
In the other, passenger Tykevious T. Durr of Forrest County alleges negligence led to him being injured.
Another passenger, Damian Swarptue, 26, of Hattiesburg, also died in the crash. Allen, the driver, was charged with two counts of manslaughter.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Marion County, the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and the City of Columbia.
Both Floyd and Durr are represented by Alfred Lee Felder of McComb, and both suits make similar allegations.
They said Allen fled what appeared to be a driver’s license check on July 3, 2018, was pursued by police and sheriff’s deputies. The lawsuit said they began hitting the rear of Allen’s vehicle, which continued at higher speeds until Allen’s car was allegedly hit and forced off the highway down a steep ditch or ravine.
“Plaintiff would show that the Defendants were negligent and grossly negligent by (1) maintaining an increasingly higher speed vehicle chase from an apparent misdemeanor avoidance from a driver’s license check; (2) rear ending the Allen vehicle beginning at a relatively low speed and to increasingly higher speeds; (3) causing the Allen vehicle to leave the highway, overturn several times, and ejecting occupants of the Allen vehicle and causing two deaths in addition to personal injuries to the two surviving car occupants …” Durr’s lawsuit says.
Information released by the Highway Patrol after the wreck painted a different picture. The Highway Patrol said Allen bumped a sheriff’s deputy who attempted to pass him, causing both to wreck.
A press release jointly issued by the police and sheriff’s departments after the crash said that guns that appeared to have been recently fired as well as drug paraphernalia were found inside the car.
Allen was arrested after being released from the hospital following the crash and charged with two counts of manslaughter (culpable negligence), one count of fleeing a law enforcement official in a motor vehicle causing injury and one count of aggravated assault on a police officer.
Durr and Curtis Floyd are both asking for $500,000 in damages, the maximum allowed under state law.
Both lawsuits are pending in Marion County Circuit Court.
