$225,000 awarded in fatal Wake school bus wreck

The North Carolina Industrial Commission ordered the state to pay $225,000 to the estate of a man killed when he was hit by a Wake County school bus three years ago.

Posted 2:32 p.m. Feb 10, 2016 — Updated 8:44 p.m. Feb 10, 2016

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Industrial Commission ordered the state to pay $225,000 to the estate of a man killed when he was hit by a Wake County school bus three years ago.

Joe Shelton, 41, of Clayton, was riding his scooter around 6:15 a.m. on Chapel Hill Road in Raleigh in March 2013, according to previous reports. The bus driver, Jimmie Eberhart, 65, of Cary, was making a left turn onto Edwards Mill Road when the bus collided with the scooter.

The Industrial Commission last Friday ordered the state to pay Shelton's children for his wrongful death. The award includes money for pain and suffering because Shelton lived for nearly an hour after being hit.

No students were on the bus at the time of the accident.

Although the wrongful death lawsuit was filed against the Wake County Public School System and the system was found negligent, the state takes responsibility for paying out money in school bus-related lawsuits.

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