Junior college basketball player injured in Texas van crash sues school, driver

By Jim Greene

Published on March 08, 2006

Chris Gonzalez was a passenger in one of two vans carrying the Navarro College basketball team home to Corsicana, about 55 miles SSE of Dallas, on Feb. 9, 2004, after a game in Paris, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas. When the drivers missed an exit ramp, they both attempted a U-turn to get back to the ramp. The driver of the first van succeeded, but the van driven by Bilal Batley, a student-coach, was stuck by a tractor-trailer driven by Robert Record and owned by Greentree Transportation Company.

The suit filed in Texas 62nd District Court in Lamar County, accuses Batley and Record of negligence, as well as Navarro College and Greentree. Gonzalez is asking for compensation for physical pain and mental anguish, loss of earnings and of future earnings, loss of college scholarships, disfigurement, and physical impairment, as well as medical expenses incurred and future medical care.

Although Gonzalez had to sit out the 2004-05 Navarro College season, he signed to play with Western Illinois University, where he is currently enrolled.

Players Pa Sarr and Jason Trier were killed in the crash, and head Coach Lewis Orr and several players were injured.

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