Second wrongful-death suit filed vs. trucker

The husband of a woman killed in an April car crash on Interstate 70 filed a lawsuit Friday against a trucking company and the driver of the truck that rear-ended his car, claiming the driver made no effort to avoid the crash.

It is the second wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from the crash that has been filed against truck driver Carl J. West, of Novinger, and La Plata-based BC Trucking.

Kirtland Card, 57, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against West, 61, and BC Trucking in Boone County Circuit Court. In his petition, Card said West was speeding at the time of the crash, was fatigued, failed to avoid the accident and knew his truck was mechanically defective and negligently maintained.

BC Trucking owner Phillip Bangert, West and Mark Kempton, West’s attorney, could not be reached for comment.

West was charged with two counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter in late June in connection with the crash, which killed Cheryl Card, 54, of Lincoln, Neb., and John Ferkel, 40, of St. Peters. Kirtland Card was also injured in the crash, suffering fractures to his ribs, sternum and lower vertebrae.

West was not injured, but was taken to University Hospital for “severe emotional distress.” Columbia police said that West, who was driving a semi-tractor without a trailer, failed to stop when traffic stopped in front of him because of construction near the Lake of the Woods exit and rear-ended the Cards’ car, pushing it into the back of the Ferkels’ car.

Rebecca Wood, one of the Cards’ three children, said her parents were on their way home after a weeklong visit to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis where Kirtland Card had just been evaluated for a lung transplant.

Cheryl Card had three children and five grandchildren.

“This shouldn’t have happened,” Wood said. “It sounds like (the accident) could have been prevented, which makes it even worse.”

Ferkel’s widow, Denise Ferkel, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against West and BC Trucking on Sept. 15.

West is scheduled to appear in Boone County Circuit Court at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 20 for a preliminary hearing in the criminal lawsuit against him.