VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) — Ben Fulwiler was full of life. He played baseball, loved puppies and rode his bike.

But the 11-year-old died on April 28, 2012. Ben was near the intersection of 27th and Main Street in Vancouver when a C-TRAN bus driver made a left-hand turn and collided with Ben’s bike. The youth was run over by the rear wheels of the bus and died later at a hospital.

Ben Fulwiler was 11 when he died April 12, 2012 after he was run over by this C-Tran bus in Vancouver. (KOIN, file)

The driver did not face any criminal charges in the case.

His parents, Jennifer Kanna and Dustin Fulwiler, filed a wrongful death suit against C-TRAN in 2014. The $2 million settlement with the Clark County public transportation authority was signed August 15.

“It’s devastating, you can well imagine, to lose your boy,” said the family’s attorney Jim Sellers. “But it’s equally devastating to have people sit there and try and contend, to protect their own liability, that the boy was at fault when he wasn’t.”

In a statement to KOIN 6 News, C-TRAN spokesperson Scott Patterson said the transportation authority believes “the responsibility for this tragic incident does not rest on C-TRAN,” but acknowledged “litigation is unpredictable.”

He added C-TRAN has not changed any policies directly because of the accident, but they periodically update their safety practices and operator training.

Ben Fulwiler, seen in an undated courtesy photo, was 11 when he died April 12, 2012 after he was run over by a C-Tran bus in Vancouver.
Ben Fulwiler, seen in an undated courtesy photo, was 11 when he died April 12, 2012 after he was run over by a C-Tran bus in Vancouver.

“We now look forward to helping bring closure to the Fulwiler family, the former C-TRAN Bus Operator, and other employees who have all suffered ever since that terrible day in April of 2012,” Patterson said.

For the family, Sellers said the settlement is “a resolution that, as far as we’re concerned, establishes that the boy was the victim of a mistake, an act of negligence of a bus driven by a public agency.”

The family believes the settlement speaks for itself.

But Sellers said, “You don’t come out of these things feeling anything other than relief that it’s resolved. There’s not happiness associated with these events at all.”On the Net:Benjamin Fulwiler Memorial Page – Facebook