CRIME & COURTS
JULY 10, 2017 12:32 PM
Midlands auto dealer sued by another victim in fatal Lake Murray boat crash
BY TEDDY KULMALA
tkulmala@thestate.com
RICHLAND COUNTY, SC
The family of one of the two men killed in an April boat crash on Lake Murray has filed a lawsuit against the surviving driver, who was cleared by investigators.
David Bruce Dyer, president of Dick Dyer Toyota, is accused in the suit of carelessness, negligence and recklessness.
West Columbia attorney Jahue Moore Jr. filed the suit Thursday in Richland County court on behalf of Christy Gray Lanier and Connie Elizabeth Lanier, whose son Shawn Lanier died in the April 21 crash that also killed his friend, Danny Phillips.
Dyer was driving a powerboat that fatally collided with Phillips’ bass boat, in which Lanier was a passenger. A third person on the bass boat and two people on Dyer’s boat were injured. The third passenger on Phillips’ boat, Ashley Wannamaker, filed a suit against Dyer about a week after the crash.
Investigators with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources determined Phillips was at fault in the crash and determined Dyer, 56, should not be charged. Dyer told officers he had consumed “a few beers over the course of five or six hours,” but officers conducted sobriety testing on Dyer and determined he was not impaired at the time of the collision about 11 p.m.
Lanier’s family seeks damages to cover medical bills, funeral bills and the “significant loss of earning capacity and financial damage.”
The suit alleges that in addition to speeding, driving while his abilities were impaired, failing to keep a proper lookout and failing to yield the right of way, Dyer did not help Lanier, Phillips or Wannamaker immediately after the crash.
Additionally, the suit alleges that Dyer’s powerboat is owned by “a sham holding company and the alter ego” of Dyer. The boat ownership business, named BGIN NXS LLC, “has no legitimate business purpose and was simply created to shield liability,” the complaint reads.
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