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The federal government has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of Honolulu Police Officer Garret Davis.
Lawyers for the government and Davis’ estate announced the settlement in U.S. District Court Wednesday. According to the terms of the settlement, Davis’ estate will get $1.8 million and Davis’ mother, Rhonda Davis, will get $200,000. The settlement is subject to the approval of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch or her representative.
Davis, 28, died in January 2012 when a speeding, full-size pickup truck slammed into the back of his patrol car on the H-1 freeway in Aiea. Davis had turned on his flashing lights and stopped his patrol car in the fast lane behind a stalled vehicle.
The driver of the vehicle said Davis had walked up to him to ask him why he was stalled and had gone back to his patrol car to call for a tow truck when the pickup slammed into Davis’ car.
Federal firefighter Scott Frederick Ebert of Mililani was the driver of the speeding pickup truck. He was on Air Force Reserve duty at the time of the crash and was on his way to the Honolulu Airport to catch a flight to the mainland for training.
Witnesses in Ebert’s state manslaughter trial testified that Ebert was running late and was making telephone calls to get permission to park his truck at the Federal Fire Department’s compound on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, near the airport.
A state jury found Ebert guilty in April of misdemeanor negligent homicide, instead of manslaughter. Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi sentenced Ebert in August to the maximum one-year jail term.
Three months after Davis’ death, the Hawaii Legislature enacted the so-called “move over” law that requires drivers to slow down and move to an adjacent lane of traffic when approaching an emergency vehicle that is stopped and has its emergency lights flashing.