BOULDER, Colo. –
One of seven passengers in a June 2007 auto wreck in Boulder County is suing several other people involved, claiming they dragged an unconscious passenger into the driver’s seat and spent critical moments after the crash trying to tow the vehicle instead of calling for help.
Aaron Sines, who now lives in Denver, said in a lawsuit filed this week in Boulder County District Court that he suffered a severe head injury when the 1989 Chevrolet Blazer he was riding in spun out of control and rolled off U.S. 287 into a ditch.
Several passengers were ejected as the SUV’s roof sheared off against a tree, and one person died, according to Camera archives.
“He’ll have severe cognitive difficulties the rest of his life, but he’s able to communicate,” Sines’ lawyer, Michael Thomson, said Friday.
The lawsuit states that the Blazer, carrying eight people including the driver, was heading south out of Longmont on U.S. 287 on June 15, 2007, when the driver attempted to make a left turn onto Monarch Road and rolled the vehicle instead.
Sines names in his suit four people as the possible driver that night â Sines’ attorney said his client doesn’t remember the events of the night due to his injuries. But based on information he has pieced together since the accident, Sines suspects Noah Thomas, driving drunk, was behind the wheel when the Blazer rolled.
The suit claims that with several victims seriously injured at the scene, Thomas moved an unconscious passenger â David Merrill â into the driver’s seat.
Then Noah Thomas and his brother, Joshua, walked a half-mile to the home of their mother, Mary McLarty, who ran to the scene and called her brother to see if he could tow the van, according to the suit.
It wasn’t until sometime after an employee with Tom’s American Towing began trying to pull the Blazer out of the ditch that someone called 911, the suit states.
“Up until that point, no one had called for emergency help,” the suit says.
A call to Noah Thomas was not returned Friday.
Thomson, Sines’ lawyer, said the delay in getting medical help to the scene left his client “outraged,” and he claims Sines may not have sustained such long-lasting injuries had he been treated promptly.
“I think it’s startling, given the injuries, that medical personnel weren’t called to the scene immediately,” he said.
Sines accuses the Thomas brothers, their mother and a couple of employees of the towing company of conspiring to “intentionally misrepresent facts about the accident to law enforcement” so that they would accuse the wrong person of driving drunk that night.
The suit also names several of Sines’ fellow passengers as defendants, claiming that they have accused each other of driving the vehicle when it crashed and of moving bodies around after the Blazer rolled into the ditch.
On Friday, Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said his office is investigating the accident and trying to determine if charges should be filed.
Dear Staff:
A Chevrolet Blazer isn’t a “van.”
donwrege
7/17/2009 12:14:18 PM
It’s an SUV: Sport Utility Van
gsegiet@flash.net
7/17/2009 12:25:40 PM
Sport Utility Vehicle
Staja_6655321
7/17/2009 12:35:40 PM
LOL @ Sport Utility Van!
These people are morally corrupt.
Englehood
7/17/2009 12:46:40 PM
Noah and Mother McLarty have some ‘splaining to do.
WesternSky
7/17/2009 1:08:57 PM
What a great friend – put’s you in the driver seat when you are blacked out to save his butt. Lay you odds it was the mother’s idea. Wonderful family values.
geneloehrlein
7/17/2009 1:18:55 PM
That’s some piss poor writing.Reading this (paper) is like reading a how not to of journalism.Would someone please proof read anything before it goes online!
” Several passengers were ejected as the van’s roof sheared off, and one died, according to Camera archives.”Did one of the roofs die?
Shouldn’t it be “Several passengers were ejected killing one…”
Also,starting a Paragraph with But? I won’t even begin with what’s wrong with that paragraph/wanna be run on punctuated sentence.
xxx
7/17/2009 2:16:49 PM
Posted by WesternSky on July 17, 2009 at 1:08 p.m.
“Noah and Mother McLarty have some ‘splaining to do.”
Oh, you watched the ‘wise *ss Latina’ hearings also, huh?
redneck
7/17/2009 2:36:35 PM
redneck, more along the lines of Ricky Ricardo. 🙂
WesternSky
7/17/2009 8:16:50 PM
Their behavior is the new “Normal”….
Get used to it.
Every “Consumer Unit” for itself.
Economy aside, we are definitely in a Moral depression.
meta4
7/18/2009 6:58:52 AM
“On Friday, Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said his office is investigating the accident and trying to determine if charges should be filed.”
This hasn’t been investigated yet? Good grief, YES charges should be filed! I remember this accident. Someone was left in the ditch until morning, weren’t they? Unaccounted for, because the Thomas jerks were so into covering their butts that they didn’t even count the passengers.
monkeys
7/18/2009 7:06:36 AM
Let’s see…
choose to ride with a drunk driver and then file a lawsuit.Ain’t that the American way.
JG
7/18/2009 8:44:55 AM
I was a close family friend of the passenger that was killed in this accident… I also knew Aaron signs very well, although due to the severety of his head injury he does not remember me! I am completely outraged by this whole mess! I can not believe that the thomas boys and their mother would react to a situation with this severety as they did! would it have been different if her sons had been in comas or possibly dead, I THINK SO! I also am in complete disbelief that a tow truck driver would even consider moving a vehicle with that much damage and injured people all around without consulting emergency personel first! I really hope that B****** does not have a job to this day! Charges had better be pressed and someone had better be held responsible for the anguish these familes have gone through the past two years! It is really terrible and i hope that the jerksresponsible feel extremely bad for what they have done! it does not pay to drink and drive! My heart goes out to Jesse, David, Aaron, Holly, and RIP Jeffery!
outraged
7/24/2009 11:13:24 PM
