Widow files suit in death of spouse

COLUMBUS - A widow of a 32-year-old Genoa man killed during a late-November 2005 blizzard in a head-on collision with a semi-trailer truck north of Humphrey has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the fatal accident.

Kara Gronenthal, 29, as the personal representative of the estate of her late husband, Jeffrey Gronenthal, and Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. of Madison have filed the lawsuit in Platte County District Court seeking undetermined general damages.

Kara Gronenthal, the mother of two daughters, ages 7 and 5, and Tyson Fresh Meats are accusing trucker Bryan Koliha and Daniel Koliha, owner of Koliha Trucking of Schuyler, of negligence in the accident.

The lawsuit asks for undetermined damages for the loss of Jeffrey Gronenthal's present and future financial support and companionship toward the family and for his pain and suffering following the accident.

Jeffrey Gronenthal was an employee of Tyson, and the company has been paying workers' compensation benefits to the family since the accident.

Jeffrey Gronenthal died at the scene of an accident that occurred in the midst of a blinding snowstorm about 9 a.m. three-quarters of a mile west of the junction of highways 81 and 91, according to information released at the time by the Platte County Sheriff's Department.

The crash occurred during the height of the snowstorm when Gronenthal collided head-on with a semi-tractor trailer driven by Bryan Koliha of Schuyler. Koliha was treated for minor injuries after being transported by Humphrey Rescue Squad to Columbus Community Hospital.

The lawsuit, which also seeks specific special damages of $5,786.90 for funeral and burial expenses, contends that Bryan Koliha was eastbound on Highway 91 when he crossed the highway's “yellow centerline” and collided with a westbound car driven by Gronenthal.

The lawsuit says Koliha's “negligence” caused the accident by: operating his truck left of the roadway centerline; failing to operate his truck within his range of vision; failing to exercise a proper lookout; failing to keep his truck under proper control; and operating his truck at an excessive rate of speed under conditions then and there existing.

The Nov. 28, 2005, storm paralyzed the area and caused the closing of Highway 91 as rescue workers battling zero visibility responded to the 9:30 a.m. fatal crash.

The Nebraska State Patrol closed U.S. Highway 81 from Columbus to Yankton, S.D., both ways later that Monday afternoon. County deputies and state patrol troopers were stationed at the junctions of highways 81/91 and 81/22 to turn motorists back.

A jack-knifed semi and white-out conditions choked traffic on Highway 81, causing some vehicles to slide into ditches and the median while others crept to a standstill and were drifted in. Between 50 and 70 vehicles were stranded along Highway 81 in Platte County.

Emergency shelters were set up at Platte Center and in Columbus to help motorists stranded by blizzard conditions that made travel treacherous.