Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

WILL COUNTY – A Will County township and a propane gas company have agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a 7-year-old girl who was killed in a collision in an unincorporated area south of Frankfort, attorneys said Thursday.

The proposed settlement with Green Garden Township and Ferrelgas of Kansas, reached late Tuesday before the lawsuit was set to go to trial in Will County Circuit Court, comes nearly seven years after the incident at 88th Avenue and Stuenkel Road, the attorneys said.

Jessica Scardullo of Monee, who was a day shy of 8, was being drive to a soccer game by her mother on Sept. 9, 2000, when their car, headed north on 88th Avenue, collided with a propane truck that was headed west on Stuenkel Road. Attorneys for Jessica’s family, Jeffery Asperger and John Malm, argued in the lawsuit that the township failed to install stop signs at the intersection until after Jessica’s death even though a woman was killed in a nearly identical crash at the intersection 3 ½ years earlier.

The lawsuit also accused the drive of the truck, which was owned by Ferrelgas, of negligence.

Under the settlement, which must be approved by the Circuit Court, Ferrelgas would contribute the bulk of the award, said James Best, the attorney who represent Green Garden Township.

You can read the orginal article here: Chicago Tribune, March 16, 2007