Confidential Settlement: 20-Year-Old Struck and Killed by a Johnson County School Bus

Johnson County School District #1 agreed to pay the family of Nicholas Thompson a confidential amount to settle the family's wrongful death lawsuit filed against Johnson County and their school bus driver.

In January 2020, Nicholas Thompson was getting into his car that was parked on Main Street Buffalo, Wyoming when he was struck and killed by a Johnson County school bus. The Spence Law Firm's' investigation revealed that the bus driver had twice prior sideswiped her bus causing damage, and yet had never received any retraining from the school to ensure she could appreciate the size of her bus. The investigation also uncovered video footage showing the bus driving unreasonably close to the right side of the street, barely missing parked cars and significantly farther to the right than was safe or necessary. An expert accident reconstructionist hired by The Spence Law Firm determined the bus driver had ample time to see and react to Nicholas's presence but did nothing to avoid him; neither braking nor swerving.

Nicholas Thompson was only twenty years old when he was killed, leaving behind his grandparents, who raised him since birth.