Little Rock has asked a judge to dismiss most of the gross indifference and negligence claims a husband made in a lawsuit after his wife died when her sport utility vehicle slid off a street and submerged in a freezing pond.
In response to a lawsuit by Dayong Yang, city attorneys claimed immunity from the lawsuit under state laws. City attorneys also said in the Friday filing that the husband wasn’t entitled to relief because city officials didn’t intentionally hurt the husband or his family.
Yang filed a nine-count complaint in August that claims the city and several employees were deliberately indifferent in hiring city communications center dispatcher Candace Middleton, who alerted an ambulance but not police and fire crews about the Jan. 14 crash in which Yang’s wife, Jinglei Yi, drowned and the couple’s son was seriously injured.
Middleton resigned six months after the accident amid an investigation into how she handled the call. Yang’s lawsuit contends that Middleton had acquired 15 written complaints in her disciplinary record when she worked as a call taker in Benton, a job she held for 12 years before she was fired and moved to Little Rock.
On Jan. 14, Yi was driving east on Cooper Orbit Road with her 5-year-old son Le Yang in the backseat when she hit a patch of black ice and skidded about 25 feet before her 2006 Ford Expedition rolled into a pond, police said.
Yi called 911 about 7:55 a.m., and a Pulaski County operator transferred the call - with Yi still on the line - to Little Rock, where Middleton answered, the complaint states. Middleton assured Yi that help was coming and called the Metropolitan Emergency Medical Service.
As Yi waited for help, she called her husband, who was scrubbing for surgery at a hospital in Sherwood, the lawsuit said.
An ambulance-service operator then called Yi and for about 14 minutes tried to help her and Le escape the sinking SUV.
When the first ambulance arrived at the pond, a MEMS supervisor called the Little Rock 911 center to get an update on rescue efforts. Officials said Middleton had never entered the call into the department’s Computer Aided Dispatch System, so police and fire crews didn’t know about the accident until that call.
The Fire Department’s water rescue crew arrived at the accident about 43 minutes later, the lawsuit states. Yi was pronounced dead shortly after rescuers pulled her from the vehicle.
Yang filed the suit on behalf of his son, Le, who was unconscious when he was pulled from the vehicle. The child was treated at Arkansas Children’s Hospital for 50 days after suffering “severe injuries,” including “limited neurologic functioning,” the lawsuit said.
The suit also accuses firefighters and police of thwarting attempts by Yang and other bystanders to save his wife and son - a claim the city disputed in Friday’s filing.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 10/27/2013