A federal lawsuit has been filed by the parents of an Arkansas woman killed in a 15-vehicle pileup in Wright County during a blizzard in December 2012. Shelia Blood’s parents filed the lawsuit seeking compensatory and punitive damages for negligence and wrongful death.
Blood was in a vehicle driven by her fiancé and also occupied by his four children when two semis a quarter mile ahead of them started to jackknife, lost control, and blocked the southbound lanes of Interstate 35 near the 150 mile marker.
Blood’s fiancé saw the road was blocked, tried to stop but spun out of control. When he got out to get his children to safety, a third semi also went out of control, crushing the vehicle Blood was in between the other two semis. The drivers of the semis and the companies they were driving for are listed as defendants in the lawsuit. They are accused of operating the semis at speeds greater than was reasonable for the conditions, following too closely, and failing to maintain control.
A blizzard warning was in effect and travel was not advised at the time of the accident. A Clear Lake woman, 27-year-old Colby Bostick, who was pregnant with twins, was also killed in the accident.
(Reporting by Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City)