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Welch v. Haase12/3/2003
drive through the gate that had been set up the previous evening. Zenda Haase and another adult were at the gate that morning. As students reached the gate, Zenda asked them to call their parents if they had not already done so from the house phone. One of the drivers Zenda encountered at the gate was Darby Klein. He was driving a van with five passengers, including Caz Welch.
. Zenda asked Darby to call his mother to ask if it was "okay" to drive home and to tell her who he had with him in his van. Darby spoke to his mother, and allegedly got permission to drive home. Zenda knew that Darby had been at the party all night and that he had been drinking, but she testified that she did not see evidence that he was under the influence. Zenda did not take any other steps to ensure that Darby could safely drive, and she allowed him leave the party.
. The passengers in Darby's van were all good friends. They had "partied" in a similar manner many times in high school. In fact, they had been drinking at and driving home from parties the entire week of graduation. One of the passengers, Summer Cousins, testified that on this day, she and the other passengers in the van were all aware that Darby had been drinking at the party. However, they all got in the van anyway because it was not the first time they had been with Darby when he was driving after he had been drinking.
. After leaving the Haases', Darby drove for several miles. During the trip, Caz moved from the back of the van to the front to change the radio station. At the same time, someone in the back of the van asked for a cell phone. Darby turned back to give the phone to the passenger and lost control of the van. The van entered a ditch, hit an approach, rolled, and landed upside down. Darby described the accident at trial:
I guess, what I remember is, I was just driving down the road. Caz came, came up and he was fiddling with the radio, and then when he started going back, I looked back, and when I looked forward, there was the approach, and then that's all I remember. Because, I looked back and looked forward, and by that time we were in the ditch and already on the approach. And I – I remember trying to hit the brakes, but there was – I didn't – that's all I remember about it. That I tried to stop and I couldn't.
. As a result of the accident, Caz was pinned between the seats and the roof of the van, which had been pushed together by the accident. He was not able to move. Summer Cousins, who was in the van with Caz, testified that after the accident, she and Caz were trapped in the van. She saw that Caz was trapped by the seats, and she tried to push the seats to get them to move. She also testified that Caz was struggling to breathe.
. Another vehicle leaving the party arrived just after the accident. One of the passengers in that car, Dana Fisher, testified that the boys she was riding with "got out of our car, and went down to help, all they could. They ended up having to punch a window, break a window open to get Summer out. They tried all they could to help Caz." She went on to explain that Caz:
as not able to get out. They said he was stuck. He was still alive at that point. He was—a couple of the guys had, like, squeezed his hand and he squeezed back. But there just wasn't anything that they could do to, like, move—get the van off of him or anything.
Clayton Peters, another passenger in the car, testified that after he unsuccessfully attempted to lift the vehicle:
There really wasn't much for us to do, and I didn't want to leave there by himself, because if it was me, I wouldn't want to be by myself. So I grabbed his hand, he w
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