Mounting legal bills add to families' struggles
By Valerie Lough and Mary McCarty
Staff Writers

Monday, March 24, 2008

One impression stood out when Cai came to the United States for the first time to attend her son's funeral.

It was the safety of the roads.

In the city of Dalian, China, where she lives — population 5.43 million — traffic is noisy and chaotic.

"I could hardly hear horn sounds on the road and all drivers seem to observe traffic rules well," she said in a telephone interview from her home.

The 54-year-old mother is left with one overwhelming question: In such a small town, in such a tranquil setting, how could this have happened?

"It's too great of an affliction to see my son, so lovable and alive, leave the world so suddenly, with so much of his life not tasted and enjoyed," she said. "Did he do anything wrong like speeding? If he had, I would find it easier to accept his death."

The questions would only get tougher as the days and months went by, as the families learned more about the circumstances surrounding the horrific chain-reaction crash.
Skaggs' 1994 double fatality had been purged from his driving record, according to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. If he had driven drunk, without injuring anyone, the DUI conviction would have remained on his record forever.
"I feel there must be some loopholes in the local legal system that need to be improved," Cai said. "And what supervisory responsibilities should the community and society take up in such a case? We can't understand the Americans' way of thinking in the case. We hear that he is jobless and that he doesn't even have car insurance. I believe there could be other ways of helping him out. Why instead let him harm others?"

James Marshall, Skaggs' attorney, said his client served his prison time for the 1994 crash and was entitled to live a normal life. "He paid the price for what he had done," he said. "At some point in time you have to be able to get back on with your life. Driving a car has pretty much become a necessity for anyone who wants to maintain any kind of employment."

Despite their frustration with the American judicial system, the families of the three deceased Chinese students have only warm feelings for the American people and the Urbana University community. "Americans are very nice; they kept saying 'sorry' to us wherever we went," Cai noted.

Less than an hour after learning of the accident, the Chinese students on the 1,400-student campus divided themselves into three groups, each assigned to take care of one family. They set up a memorial room at the Student Center with a donation box, eventually raising $15,000 to pay for the families' travel expenses. "When the family members came into the memorial room and saw their pictures, they started to wail bitterly," recalled student Xue "Paulette" Zhang, 24, who organized the fundraising efforts. "I felt really sad and even guilty at the same time. The students were unable to return home for a visit for a year, and now their families can only see them at their funerals."

As the families incorporated Chinese customs into this public week of mourning, the most wrenching scene occurred at the crash site. In the traditional rites surrounding a death, they burned paper representations of money, cars and household goods that their children would need in the afterlife. The mothers collapsed, sobbing, as they were led away.
A year later, their grief hasn't abated.

"Now I'm really afraid when it gets dark at night," she said. "Without taking some sleeping pills, I can't fall asleep for a whole night. I'm afraid to close my eyes, even in the daytime, because whenever I do it, everything about my son flashes before my eyes."
At times, she admitted, it would be easier if she didn't have to go on living. "I'm the oldest daughter in my own family, and I'm supposed to take care of the old, so I must hang on, though I don't know how long I can stand up to it."

Chunzhi Sun, the mother of Bing "Jo" Xue, fought against thoughts of suicide: "When I think of my daughter, sometimes I would rather go find her, yet I realize that would just bring more anguish to other people. Meanwhile we still haven't paid off our debts for sending her abroad and all the costs of the accident. We have to live on, though it's really hard."

Cai and her husband have shielded their parents, all in their 80s, from the news of their grandson's death. Jack's father, Changqi Bian, doesn't think they could survive the blow. He used to visit them at least once a week; now he rarely does. "I dare not face them because I know I won't be able to control myself," he said. "I know what a big anticipation they have pinned on this grandson. I feel I have done something so wrong to my parents."

Bian feels that his son, who was solicitous of his grandparents, would have approved of the deception. "When his grandparents gave him the traditional red-envelope lucky money during the Spring Festival, he would always refuse," Bian recalled. "In his opinion, his grandparents would be more in need of the money."

Life-changing injuries
Carolyn Davis remained hospitalized for six days after the crash, the beginning of a long recovery — and a life that has been permanently altered.
Davis was in the car just in front of Bian's Taurus, and was rear-ended when Skaggs' Tahoe slammed into the students' vehicle and propelled it forward. For more than eight weeks, she was wrapped in a neck brace, back brace and ankle cast.
"I think I'd be dead if it weren't for the heavenly father," she said. "Someone else was driving my car that day."
It was five months before she recovered enough to return to work, and then only part-time. Her injuries keep her off her feet for long periods of time, she can't lift most things and still can't fully turn her neck to either side.
Jonathan Wilkerson, too, has life-changing injuries. He continues to take medication and undergoes physical therapy. Doctors haven't determined the cause of the pain and stiffness in his legs.
Wilkerson, whose car was in front of Davis,' is thinking of taking classes at a community college because he can no longer work as a factory press operator. He is now on public assistance.
Like many others, Wilkerson is outraged that Skaggs got his license back after pleading guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide in 1995. "This guy had no regard for the law 14 years ago," he said. "He did not learn his lesson. Justice was not served."
'Just a regular person'

As months dragged on without an arrest, the victims' parents grew increasingly angry. "Are Americans always slow to do everything?" Bian asked. "I don't think so. and it shouldn't be so with this case."

Skaggs was arrested on Aug. 27, 2007 — six months after the crash — on three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of aggravated vehicular assault. If convicted on all charges, he could face up to 34 years in prison.
Why did it take so long to charge someone who was whipping along at an estimated 98 mph?
"There was a lot of follow-up by the Highway Patrol, a lot of follow-up by my office in conjunction with them," explained Clark County Prosecutor Stephen Schumaker. "There was also a tremendous amount of laboratory work done."
White-haired and weary, looking far older than his 35 years, Skaggs was besieged by reporters as he was led handcuffed into the Clark County Jail. He ignored all the questions but one: "What did he want to tell the public about himself?"

"I'm sorry for everyone that died in the accident, but there's nothing I can do about it now," he said. "I'm just a regular person trying to have a regular life."

Marshall said his client suffered an epileptic seizure "prior to the accident taking place and continued with that seizure right up until shortly before that accident was over with."
But in an interview with the Highway Patrol the night of the crash, Skaggs said he "did not have (the) feeling" that he'd had a seizure that day, and hadn't suffered one in "several years." Skaggs told the Highway Patrol, "I don't remember anything except waking up."

"It's conceivable that he had a seizure that impaired his conciousness and still drove," said J. Layne Moore, associate professor of neurology and director of the comprehensive epilepsy program at Ohio State University. "And he could have had a seizure at the very end, but that wouldn't explain why he was going 98 mph."

However, Moore said it was "unlikely as hell" that Skaggs could have driven at that speed and still navigated the hills and curves leading up to the crash site. "The fact that he doesn't remember doesn't sway me," he said. "If he was hit his head hard enough (in the crash) he wouldn't remember, either.

Skaggs' driving record includes a speeding infraction for driving 91 mph in a 65 mph zone — less than five weeks before the Urbana crash.

Seven days after the pileup, Skaggs' estranged second wife, Kelly, filed for divorce after less than two years of marriage. The next day, March 16, 2007, he pleaded guilty to the speeding charges. A month later, Skaggs wrote to the judge in his divorce case, asking for a six-month delay in the proceedings.

In the letter, Skaggs described the impact he said the crash had on him. "I have been fighting epilepsy all my life and just when my doctors and I thought we had it under control I had a bad wreck a couple weeks ago and almost died, but some people were not so lucky," Skaggs wrote. "I need time to heal from this physically and emotionally before thinking about my divorce. I am on blood thinners for a year for my blood clots and have busted ribs, and I am an emotional wreck because of what happened..."
Skaggs was treated at Miami Valley Hospital after the crash, but he was home the next day.
Madison County Common Pleas Judge Robert D. Nichols ruled on Skaggs' divorce case on Sept. 14, 2007. Kelly Skaggs, he wrote, "incurred unnecessary financial burdens due to Defendant's excessive gambling activities which arose to financial misconduct."
The judge granted the divorce. Among the findings was that Skaggs failed to pay the insurance on his Chevy Tahoe even though Kelly Skaggs had given him the money for it.
'We feel lost now'
For nearly a year, the victims' families grappled with shifting trial dates and a language barrier that made it virtually impossible to follow the case from more than 6,500 miles away.
Back home in Dalian, Jin "Jack" Bian's family fended off creditors. "They just can't believe such a big case hasn't been settled after such a long time, so they kept coming to us to collect debt," Cai said.
Finally, they decided to return to the United States to seek help from the Chinese Consulate in New York City. Eventually they would like to lobby Ohio officials for changes in the state's laws regarding vehicular homicide.
Bian's parents are visting friends in Maryland; Bing "Jo" Xue's parents are staying with relatives in Philadelphia. They plan to meet Yan "Zoe" Sun's parents when her plane lands in New York City this weekend.
During their stay in the United States, they're limiting themselves to one meal a day to save costs.

Had the accident taken place in China, the courts would automatically award the families $27,000. That figure could be more than doubled by compensation for funeral costs and emotional trauma.
In the United States, all three families face mounting legal bills with little hope of compensation since Skaggs was uninsured. They're years away from paying off the loans for their dead children's education in the United States. Zoe's mother is retired, her pension a mere $80 a month, while her father is laid off, earning $65 to $80 a month through three part-time jobs. In China, they sold their small apartment to pay off part of the debt and have moved in with a nephew.
"If Zoe hadn't died, her parents' hope would have still been alive, and all their debts could have been paid off," said Zoe's aunt, Li Yu, from her home in Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning Province. "We feel lost now."
Changqi Bian, Jack's father, said the crash devastated their family as well. Yet, he said, he has never regretted sending his son to study in America.
"The tragedy itself is something I regret," he said, "but I've never regretted borrowing all that money for Jack to go abroad to further his studies. That's a necessary investment if we are set to raise a man who will do good to society and himself. However big the burden on us parents, we are determined to shoulder it."
Each of the students loved the United States, so much so that the parents made a decision.
They buried their children in their adopted country. Zoe is buried in Urbana, where the lettering on her tombstone is engraved in Chinese and English. Jo and Jack rest side by side in Philadelphia, where her uncle lives.
"I intended to bring my son's remains back to China," Cai said. "It was a hard decision for me. But I felt it would be better to leave him in America.
"He liked that place so much."
Contact these reporters at (937) 328-0360 or vlough@coxohio.com, or (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@DaytonDailyNews.com.