
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990                   TAG: 9005250611
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: EDINBURG, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

FIRM SETTLES IN BUS CRASH THAT KILLED 21

A company whose truck plowed into a school bus in an accident that killed 21 students has agreed to pay $72 million to 16 of the victims' families.

Settlements completed Thursday call for Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Inc. to pay $4.5 million per death, lawyers for the families and the company said.

Parents will receive the bulk of the money, but some of it will go to trust funds valued from $50,000 to $250,000 established for 30 surviving brothers and sisters, lawyers said. Some of the siblings won't receive trust money until they reach the age of 25.

In February, a family that lost a child in the wreck settled its wrongful death lawsuit with the company for $1.5 million.

That leaves four wrongful death cases unresolved. Mike Mills, an attorney for Valley Coca-Cola, said two of them "will be closed out shortly."

- Associated Press

by CNB