A year after Lake Murray boat crash killed 2, surviving driver settles with families
Just over a year after a nighttime boat crash killed two men on Lake Murray, the surviving driver has settled a pair of lawsuits against him that alleged wrongful death and carelessness.
David Bruce Dyer was driving the powerboat that collided with a bass boat near Dreher Island the night of April 21, 2017. The crash killed 37-year-old Danny Phillips and his friend, 28-year-old Shawn Lanier, both of whom were in the bass boat when the crash happened.
A surviving passenger in the bass boat, Ashley Thomas Wannamaker and his wife, filed a personal injury suit against Dyer just days after the collision. Months later, Lanier's estate filed a wrongful death suit against Dyer, who is president of Dyer Toyota and whose name appears on several Midlands auto dealerships.
Richland County court records list both cases as being dismissed Monday. Court documents indicate that the parties involved in the litigation settled their claims; however, the documents did not specify details of the settlement.
Messages left Tuesday for the attorneys involved were not returned.
An order was filed Tuesday approving and sealing the settlement in Lanier's wrongful death suit, court records show. The case was scheduled on a jury trial roster for November.
Dyer was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing after investigators with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources determined that Phillips, who failed to give way to Dyer's boat and had alcohol and marijuana in his system at the time of the crash, was at fault.
An attorney for Dyer last year filed a counterclaim against Phillips' estate and business in the wrongful death suit, denying any wrongdoing by Dyer and, instead, alleging that Phillips' negligence led to the crash. Phillips' widow was listed as his estate's representative.
Dyer told DNR officers after the crash that he had consumed alcohol in the hours before the collision, but he passed a field sobriety test.
A recent report from the Lexington County Coroner's Office showed that deaths from boating collisions are five times higher in Lexington than the national percentage.
This story was originally published June 5, 2018 at 2:13 PM with the headline "A year after Lake Murray boat crash killed 2, surviving driver settles with families."