State pays $150,000 in NHP crash

CARSON CITY -- The state Board of Examiners on Tuesday awarded $50,000 each to the parents of three of the four people who died in an accident involving a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper traveling 113 mph.

The board, chaired by Gov. Jim Gibbons, made no comments in approving the settlements to Graciela Lang, Jose De La Paz Cruz and Sylvia De Leon La Cruz. Their children were killed in the crash involving trooper Joshua Corcran.

Corcran, 30, rear-ended a 1988 Cadillac carrying five Mexican passengers on Feb. 19, 2006. The collision forced their vehicle off the road on Interstate 15 near Sloan.

Just before the accident, Corcran had told dispatchers that he had to hurry home to eat dinner and take an online test. At the time of the accident he was not driving with emergency lights flashing.

Killed in the accident were 21-year-old Victor De La Cruz-De Leon, 21-year-old Reymunda Lopez-Vazquez, 42-year-old Jose Sanchez Lopez and 19-year-old Jose Roberto Mejia Lang.

Cecilia Lopez Cruz, the pregnant 16-year-old wife of De La Cruz-De Leon, was the sole survivor from the Cadillac.

All of the victims were illegal immigrants from Mexico.

The trooper later apologized to the families and pleaded guilty in August 2006 to five counts of reckless driving causing death or bodily damage.

Corcran received a one- to six-year prison sentence for each of the counts. He is serving his sentence at an undisclosed prison in another state.

Daniel Wong, a deputy attorney general, said Tuesday that other claims against the state will be filed over the accident by other family members.

He noted the $50,000 settlements are the largest possible under a state law.

A new law that took effect Oct. 1 raised the settlement limit against the state to $75,000. Because that law went into effect after the accident, Wong said, the families of the victims were not entitled to higher settlements.

In a similar decision, the board granted a $159,992 settlement to James Barton to settle claims from an April 22, 2001, accident on U.S. Highway 95 near Rancho Drive in which his wife, Holly Barton, 32, and son, Benjamin Barton, 8, were killed.

An out-of-control car driven by Mitchell E. Dettloff slammed into the Barton's pickup and pushed it into the opposite lane where the vehicle was hit by a pickup driven by Brian Lee Cooper, 30. Cooper also was killed in the accident.

In addition to making a settlement to Barton, the Board of Examiners agreed Tuesday to pay $29,998 to Kimberly Cooper, Brian Cooper's wife, and $24,999 to Tammy Donnelly, the mother of his daughter, Jessica.

In filing claims against the state over the accident, Barton said a barrier should have been constructed to prevent cars from crossing the median and hitting oncoming traffic.

Dettloff, now 42, fled from the accident site. He was later arrested and sentenced on May 24, 2002, on three counts of leaving the scene of an accident.

He received a four- to 10-year prison sentence and was released in November 2006.