LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas lawmakers have approved the state paying $100,000 for the drownings of a woman and her son, reversing a panel’s earlier ruling that the state wasn’t responsible.
The Joint Budget Committee on Thursday approved the payment to Dayong Yang after he claimed a delayed response from a Little Rock dispatcher led to the deaths of his wife and son, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Jinglei Yi, 39, died in January 2013 after an ice patch sent her vehicle into a Little Rock pond. Le Yang, their 5-year-old son, was rescued but died two years later.
Yang had filed a lawsuit against a former 911 dispatcher and the City of Little Rock for failing to manually enter her 911 call into the system. Rescue units had not been dispatched until nearly 30 minutes after the call was received.
He later filed a claim against the state Department of Emergency Management, which coordinated the state 911 system. The state Claims Commission in September rejected that claim.
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