3rd Lawsuit Filed in West Virginia Music Festival Crash

A third federal lawsuit has been filed stemming from a fatal July accident at the All-Good Music Festival near Masontown.

Elizabeth Rose Doran, 21, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., filed the lawsuit alleging negligence against the event’s producer, the venue’s owner and other defendants, The Dominion Post reported Monday.

Doran was injured in the accident that killed Nicole Miller and injured another friend, Yen Ton. The accident occurred when a pickup truck hit two other vehicles before plowing into the tent where the women were sleeping.

Ton and Miller’s family filed lawsuits earlier. All three lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg.

A telephone message left with Jefferson, Md.-based Walther Productions wasn’t immediately returned Monday.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants were or should have been aware of the hazards of allowing festivalgoers to park their vehicles so close to campsites on top of steep, grassy slopes.

The pickup truck’s driver, 20-year-old Clay Harlin Lewin, has not been charged. Preston County Sheriff Dallas Wolfe said there is no indication that drugs or alcohol were factors in the incident.

The lawsuit accuses Lewin of failing to warn others that he was attempting to leave the facility and failing to maintain control of his vehicle

The festival draws tens of thousands of people each summer, but this was the first year it was held under a new mass gathering ordinance. The earlier lawsuits say the permit Preston County issued allowed a crowd of 19,500, but the organizers allegedly allowed more than 30,000 people to gather.