By Bill Miller, September 17, 2004

DALLAS - Survivors and relatives of victims of the 2002 bus crash near Terrellwere guardedly pleased Thursday that a jury awarded them nearly $71million in damages, but many of them were hoping for something else.

Knowing that the verdict could be appealed, several of the young survivors hoped to see former bus company owner Eric Rockmore take responsibility.

"I wanted to hear an apology," Marshall Thomasson said. "We didn't get that today. That's all I really wanted."

In awarding the money to the 20 plaintiffs, the jury of seven women and five men ruled that Rockmore exhibited malice by dispatching a fatigued driver with drugs in his body to transport a church youth group to a Bible camp in Louisiana.

"Responsibility?" said Rockmore, mobbed by reporters while waiting for an elevator after the trial at the George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Building. "Like I said, I feel a lot of people had a responsibility; that was not able to be brought out."

Rockmore's attorney, Rob Miller, said an appeal is likely.

"We don't have any choice," Miller said. "Without minimizing the tragedy, that's obviously a lot of money."

They also ordered that $2 million in exemplary damages be paid to the plaintiffs and some of their parents, each getting $100,000.

More than half of the total judgment, about $36 million, goes to the most severely injured of the survivors, Nick Stout, 15, who lost an ear and suffered a compound leg fracture and brain damage.

His mother, Joan Stout, said she also hoped for an apology. She added, however, that her son doesn't harbor bitterness or resentment.

"Nick has never cried through any of this," she said. "A head injury event masks a lot of things. It's kind of a mixed blessing because he's not aware of a lot of things.

"You or I might be morbidly depressed knowing that we didn't have an ear or knowing that we'd have to go through all of the surgeries he has had. It might be he masks a lot of things, we just can't tell."

Her husband, Don Stout, said the victory was "bittersweet."

"I'd rather have my son," he said.

Rockmore owned the bus that crashed June 24, 2002, into a concrete bridge support on Interstate 20 near Terrell. The wreck severely injured dozens of children from Metro Church in Garland. It also killed four of their friends and bus driver Ernest Carter.

The trial included three weeks of testimony in which investigators testified that they learned Carter was overly fatigued that day and had traces of cocaine and Valium in his blood, which, they asserted, caused him to doze.

Rockmore's attorney said that a snake found at the accident scene might have snuck on board the bus and startled the driver.

After three days of deliberations, the jury ordered that $68,916,590 should be paid to the plaintiffs to cover pain and mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, loss of future earnings and medical expenses.

Aside from an appeal, other legal disputes are ongoing over two insurance policies Rockmore once held.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs want their clients to be paid by those policies, but the insurance companies are debating whether Rockmore was fully covered. The two issues will probably be debated in federal court, attorneys said.

"It could be over tomorrow if they offered to settle," said Stephen Khoury, attorney for Ashley Pavelko, who was one of the injured teen-agers on the bus. "We don't know how long it can take. All we do know is that we had to get a verdict before we could go forward, and that's what we did."