There have been a couple of updates in the Randolph County Circuit Court case involving a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the daughter of a woman who was fatally struck by an alleged underage drunk driver while crossing a street at the conclusion of opening night of last year’s Red Bud Firemen’s Picnic.

Eva Buch, daughter of the late Kimberly Ann Martin, 56, of Red Bud, is seeking a judgement in excess of $50,000 in a lawsuit that named Jayden D. Ethington, the Red Bud Fire Company and Dieterich Bank as defendants. 

The incident occurred shortly after 11:20 p.m. June 23, at the intersection of South Main Street/Route 3 and South First Street, during which a Ford F150 driven by Ethington, of Sparta, who was 20 at the time, was pulling out of a public parking lot in the wrong direction and struck Martin, who was crossing the street.

Martin was rushed to Red Bud Regional Hospital, then airlifted toward a St. Louis hospital. However, she succumbed to her injuries during the helicopter flight. 

Ethington was eventually charged with aggravated DUI (causing injury/death), which is a Class 2 felony.

Dieterich Bank quickly filed a motion to dismiss its involvement in the suit, stating it only provided volunteers to take alcohol tokens from patrons after they were already ID’d and had paid for the tokens, and that the plaintiff was not able to establish that any person affiliated with the bank dispersed or sold liquor to Ethington.

In mid-March, Judge Jeremy Walker ordered a plaintiff’s motion for voluntary dismissal of Dieterich Bank be granted from this lawsuit. 

As for Red Bud Fire Company, its lawyers also filed a response seeking dismissal from the suit.  

In its filing, the fire company claims that plaintiff allegations of it permitting and/or encouraging pedestrian traffic “to traverse a poorly illuminated intersection” that lacked a crosswalk, traffic control device or signals and failing to “provide a safe means of ingress and egress” to and from the picnic to the parking lot are not valid due to Main Street/Route 3 falling under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Further, other than admitting Ethington struck and killed Martin with his vehicle, the fire company denies allegations against it and demands a trial by jury. 

Last week, Martin’s daughter filed a response to the fire company motion to dismiss by countering that the “defendant’s entire motion is based upon the false assertion that it is entitled to absolute immunity under the Illinois Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act.”

The plaintiff’s response filing claims that since the fire company was not acting in a governmental capacity in hosting its annual picnic, there’s no such immunity attached.