The Hamilton County School system has been sued over an incident at the Red Bank High School baseball field last Aug. 28 in which a sophomore suffered serious injuries.
Cindy C. and Samuel Edward Livingston, parents of the sophomore, are asking at least $1 million in the Circuit Court complaint.
The suit says members of the Red Bank High baseball team were notified by baseball coach Trey Hicks the previous day that they were to appear the next afternoon to work on the field. It says the next day Coach Hicks reminded the players about appearing to do the field work.
The sophomore went to work on the field and found the coach was not there. However, another student said the coach had given him the keys to a shed containing a Gator utility vehicle. The student unlocked the shed with the keys given him by the coach.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Hoyt Samples, says the boys were given additional instruction on the work by another student at the field.
The sophomore got on the Gator with another student, and it was being driven by the student who had the keys to open the shed.
The suit says there was a rake on the field, and the driver swerved hard to miss it. That caused the Gator to go out of control and go nose first down a 5-7-foot dropoff into a creek adjoining the baseball field.
The driver and the other student were thrown off, but the sophomore "was pinned underneath and crushed by the utility vehicle when it turned over on him. He was pinned with a portion of his body under water in the creek."
The suit says the other two boys worked to get the Gator off of him.
The suit says the principal appeared and said the students were not suppose to be unsupervised.
It says, "Coach Hicks later admitted to the mother that the accident was his fault."
At Erlanger Hospital, the injured student had serious kidney injuries, a left humerus fracture, a left scapula fracture, an L2 spinous process fracture, and an L1 transverse process fracture.
He was in the hospital until Sept. 3, including several days in intensive care.
The suit says his left kidney is basically non-functioning and it may have to be removed. His right kidney has also been impaired and he may have to undergo kidney transplants.
The suit said school officials were negligent in not properly supervising the boys at the field.