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BRYAN -- Texas A&M University, a college bonfire committee and a dozen Aggie administrators agreed Tuesday to pay $2.1 million to four families of students killed and three others injured in the 1999 bonfire stack collapse.
The settlement was announced in the 361st District Court in Bryan nearly nine years after the 59-foot-tall tower of more than 5,000 logs crumbled as 70 people worked on the wedding cake-like structure. Fort Worth attorney Darrell Keith, who represents the families of three students killed and two who were among those injured in the Nov. 18, 1999 accident, said he was pleased with the settlement.“It will likely bring about the corrective justice so no other A&M student, former student or anyone working on or near Bonfire will be in peril of their lives or their safety because of the wrongful conduct that occurred on that very sad and tragic day in November of 1999,” he said. The victims agreed to set aside a larger portion of the settlement, although details were not released because of confidentiality, and placed into an annuity to help support John Comstock of Dallas, a student who lost his left leg and suffered partial paralysis in the bonfire stack collapse. He was the last living person to be removed from the wreckage, his attorney Scott Sherr said.Prior to the court hearing, victim families greeted each other with hugs, shared stories and photos of their children and grandchildren.Greg and Jill Powell, of North Richland Hills, represented the deceased victims as the judgment was rendered. Their son, 19-year-old Chad A. Powell, was among 12 people killed and 27 injured.“The whole goal was that no other family every has to endure this,” Greg Powell said, tearfully addressing the media. “Before we are through, we are going to make sure that nobody has to stand on the ground of the bonfire and say, ‘What has happened again?’ ”Powell also thanked his Fort Worth attorney, Geno Borchardt, who took the case when others said it was a fight that couldn’t be won.Of the injured, Dominic Braus, 27, of Waco, was in the courtroom with his wife and mother. Braus, a third-year law student at Baylor University, has a 6-month-old daughter.“It’s been a long time and a real hard fight ... and now we’re ready to turn our attention to the rest of the culpable parties,” Braus said. “Zachry Construction Corp. and Scott-Macon, which provided cranes and crane operators to build the stack, are also being sued.The plaintiff’s attorney vowed to continue their fight with those companies, calling their lack of settlement “appalling and shameful.”Texas A&M issued a formal statement Tuesday following the hearing, stating that the university contested the claims that it or its employees “were legally responsible for the deaths and injuries that occurred as a result of the Bonfire collapse. “The University deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries that occurred on its campus,” the statement reads. Former Texas A&M President Ray Bowen, who was among the parties who settled Tuesday, ended the bonfire tradition on July 26, 2002. He agreed that any future bonfires would adhere to guidelines set out in the Texas Engineering Practice Act.
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