2 families file wrongful death lawsuits after deaths on Bull Creek low-water crossing in Taney County
TANEY COUNTY, Mo. (KY3) -
Two families filed wrongful death lawsuits in Taney County court involving the safety of a law-water crossing on Bull Creek.
Kirk Farrell, whose wife Rita, drowned on Bull Creek in June filed one claim. The wife and parents of Scott Puckett, one of the two kayakers who drowned at the spot in May 2019, filed the other claim. The lawsuits name landowner Steve Johnson, his company, Sequiota Investments, and the contractor who built the low water crossing, Tom Boyce Excavating.
The lawsuits claim the crossing was not properly built or certified by the corps of engineers, and it created a powerful hydraulic, forcing the victims underwater. They claim both Johnson and the contractor knew about issues with the crossing and did nothing to fix the situation until now. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspected the crossing in June, after three drownings at the spot, and found it was out of compliance with the nationwide permit given for the project about three years earlier.
The Corps says the structure has now been removed, and Johnson plans to replace it with an elevated slab bridge. Since the old one is gone, the owner is once again in compliance with the permit regulations, which only require that it doesn’t obstruct the stream’s flow or fish passage.
“Requiring us to approve these things for safety would be very difficult, because you’d be asking us almost to deny every permit application, because there’s just no way to guarantee safety once you start putting fill material in some of these creeks,” said Jay Townsend, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District, chief of public affairs.
Johnson must submit a certificate of compliance to the U.S. Corps of Engineers once construction of the new bridge is complete. There is no deadline. The Corps says it will inspect the new one as soon as it is built.
“Well, I’m very happy that it’s gone,” says Loring Bullard, chairman of the Schoolcraft chapter of the Ozark Society. “It’s terrible that it takes tragedies like this to bring it to the public’s attention what a safety hazard that that bridge was.”
Bullard is concerned about other low water bridges and low head dams across the Ozarks. “I don’t understand why safety cannot be a consideration,” Bullard says.
Rep. Billy Long is looking into ways that might improve Corps nationwide permit inspections and the overall safety of Corps-regulated structures. Long hopes to find a suitable and workable solution that doesn’t infringe on property rights, but still prevents similar tragedies from happening in the future.
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