FROM STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER: A 27-year-old Waverly man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after admitting to being under the influence of alcohol and drugs when the truck he was driving struck and killed another motorist last summer.
Alex L. Robertson pleaded guilty to aggravated driving under the influence on Feb. 22.
Police said Robertson, driving a white van, ran a red light while driving east on Monroe Street at Ninth Street shortly after 6 p.m. on July 21, 2012. The van collided with a northbound blue van driven by Quana S. Poole, 22, of Springfield.
Poole was pronounced dead at 10:42 a.m. on July 22 at Memorial Medical Center.
Settlement reached in wrongful death suit
From State Journal-Register
The estate of Quana S. Poole, 22, the Springfield woman who died last summer of injuries she suffered when the van she was driving was struck by a drunken driver, has settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed in connection with the accident.
Poole died on July 22, 2012, a day after her van collided with another van driven by Alex L. Robertson, 27, of Waverly. Robertson, who was driving a white MB Heating & Cooling van, ran a red light while going east on Monroe Street about 6 p.m. July 21. The van collided with a blue van being driven north on Ninth Street by Poole.
Robertson was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this summer after pleading guilty to aggravated driving under the influence.
Poole’s mother, Melissa Williams, filed a wrongful death suit a month after the accident.
Last week, Guitars & Cadillacs Saloon, a bar on Peoria Road, agreed to pay almost $140,000 under the Dram Shop Act, and Robertson and his former employer, MB Heating & Cooling, will pay $1.5 million through their insurance company, Pekin Insurance.
Robertson had been drinking at the tavern for about two hours after he had completed a service call and drank for an hour at the site of the call, according to documents filed in connection with the suit.
The law firms that represented Poole’s estate — Shay & Associates and the Law Office of Michael J. Drake — will share about $560,000 of the award, while Memorial Medical Center will be reimbursed $90,000, according to settlement documents.
Poole’s heirs will receive about $907,000. MORE