Suit Filed Against Driver And Bars Over Fiery Accident That Killed Five

The families of five people who died of the personal injuries they suffered in a fiery crash in 2007 have filed suit against a convicted drunken driver and two bars that served him for negligence and wrongful death.

The suit, which was filed in West Virginia’s Monongalia County Circuit Court names as defendants Brian Stone, Automatic Slim’s Hot Spot, and Novichenk’s Tailgater’s Pub 2.

According to the complaint, the employees of both bars knew or should have known that Stone was already impaired when they continued to serve him alcoholic beverages on the night of the crash. According to police, at the time of the crash, Stone’s blood-alcohol content was nearly three times the state’s legal limit.

In 2008, Stone was convicted of 25 charges, including five counts of DUI causing death. He was given a sentence of up to 56 years in prison.

In the 2007 crash near Morgantown, West Virginia, 30-year-old Baltimore, Maryland resident Courtney Evans, his 12-year-old son, Sawyer Evans, 52-year-old Clarksburg, West Virginia resident Donnell Perry, and his daughters, 15-year-old Jentil Perry and 13-year-old Jacquesha Perry died.

According to investigators, at the time of the crash, Stone rear-ended Evans’ vehicle, forcing it across the median and into oncoming traffic. Evans’ vehicle then collided with Perry’s vehicle. Neither Evans nor Perry was able to avoid the crash.

The suit also claims that seven people other people suffered “serious, severe, and permanent physical and emotional injuries in the crash.

Stone had been charged with at least six DUIs in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and was convicted of three of them before the crash.