U.S. Diplomat’s Wife Settles Suit Over Crash Death of U.K. Teen

(Bloomberg) -- The family of a British teenager killed in a car crash two years ago have reached a settlement in the wrongful-death lawsuit they filed in Virginia against a U.S. State Department employee accused of fatally striking him while driving on the wrong side of the road. 

A spokesman for the family of Harry Dunn, 19, said the parties had reached a “resolution” to a complaint Dunn’s parents filed in September 2020 against Anne Sacoolas amid rising diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Britain over the incident. 

“They can put this part of the campaign behind them,” Radd Seiger, the Dunn spokesman, said in a statement. “The family feel they can now turn their attention to the criminal case and the long awaited inquiry into Harry’s death.” 

Seiger didn’t disclosed details of the agreement. 

Attorneys for Sacoolas didn’t respond to a request for comment.

British authorities charged Sacoolas, who had been living in the U.K. for several weeks at the time, with dangerous driving, saying she was on the wrong side of the road when she drove her Volvo SUV and crashed head-on with Dunn, who was riding a motorcycle. 

Sacoolas, the wife of a U.S. diplomat, left Britain shortly after the August 2019 crash, and the Trump administration rejected the U.K.’s extradition request, arguing Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity.

The case became a major diplomatic incident, causing outrage in Britain. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Virginia, Dunn’s parents and twin brother said Sacoolas was negligent in her driving and failed to call an ambulance after the accident. They sued Sacoolas and her husband, Jonathan.

The case is Charles et al v. Sacoolas et al, 20-cv-01052, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria).

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.