Senate panel advances bill to pay $1.2M to Pasco man maimed in school bus crash

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 1/4/23-Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, speaks during the Agriculture Committee, Wednesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

For the first time since former Sen. Mike Fasano filed the original legislation in 2010, Senators have weighed in on a bill that would compensate a Pasco County man who suffered life-altering injuries in a gruesome crash 19 years ago.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-0 for SB 8, which would authorize Pasco County Schools to pay $1 million to Marcus Button and $200,000 to his mother, Robin Button, for pain, suffering, costs and lost wages incurred in a 2006 collision with a Pasco school bus.

“Experts estimate Marcus’ future care costs at $6-10 million with lifetime lost wages of $365,000 to $570,000,” the bill’s sponsor, Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon, told the panel.

“This bill seeks to provide fair compensation to Marcus Button’s catastrophic, life-altering injuries and ongoing needs.”

SB 8 would provide $1.2 million to Button and his mother and absolve the Pasco School Board of further liability. It would end a chapter long overdue closure.

Following the crash, a court awarded $1.38 million to Button and $289,000 to his parents. But Button and his mother, his only surviving parent, have seen just $163,000 due to Florida’s statutory limits.

SB 8 and its House companion (HB 6507) by Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade are claims bills, a special classification of legislation intended to compensate a person or entity for injury or loss due to the negligence or error of a public officer or agency.

Claims bills arise when appropriate damages exceed what is allowable under Florida’s sovereign immunity law, which protects government agencies from costly lawsuits by capping payouts — today — at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. For payments beyond those sums, legislative action is necessary.

Marcus Button was 16 on Sept. 22, 2006, when his friend, Jessica Juettner, was driving him to their high school. School bus driver John E. Kinne pulled out in front of Juettner’s car on State Road 54. It was later determined that Kinne, whose only other passenger was a backup driver, failed to yield the right-of-way.

Juettner’s car struck the bus between its wheels, slipping under the larger vehicle. While she suffered minor injuries, Button, who was riding in the front seat and allegedly not wearing a seatbelt, struck the windshield headfirst, sustaining facial and skull fractures, brain damage and vision loss.

After more than two months of inpatient treatment and rehabilitation, Button still faced a long, arduous and still-incomplete road to recovery. He had to relearn how to walk and today can’t walk for “any substantial length of time without pain,” the bill says. He’s also mostly blind in his right eye, has no sense of smell and endures other disabilities when it comes to tasting food and feeling textures.

Further, he now speaks with a British accent due to foreign accent syndrome, a speech disorder associated with traumatic brain injury. He also endures visual and auditory hallucinations that contribute to chronic paranoia.

In a 2013 interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Button related how he sometimes saw camels walking beside him and once caressed a dead pet cat named Kiki who rubbed against his leg. The outlet also detailed how his difficulty controlling impulses prevented him from going to crowded places.

Button’s parents sued the Pasco County School Board in 2007. A pediatric rehabilitation doctor and neuropsychologist testified that Button would require 24-hour care, counseling, intervention, medical care and pharmaceuticals for the rest of his life to cope with his physical symptoms and control his “psychotic and delusional behavior,” the bill says. The doctor noted other issues Button deals with, including memory loss, sleep deprivation and difficulty concentrating.

Jurors split responsibility for the crash and Button’s injury among those involved. The six-person panel apportioned 65% of the blame to the Pasco County School Board, 20% to Juettner, who they determined could have avoided the accident if she had paid more attention while driving, and 15% to Button for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt.

Andrade and Simon last year became the first legislators to carry claims bills for the Buttons since 2020, when former Senate Democratic Leader Audrey Gibson filed a comparable measure with no House companion.

It died without a hearing, as did prior efforts by former Republican Sen. Miguel Díaz de la Portilla in 2012 and 2013, and former Republican Sen. Denise Grimsley in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

The Pasco County School Board signaled support for SB 8. Palm Harbor Republican Sen. Ed Hooper expressed disbelief that the Buttons have been denied recompense for so long.

“Nineteen years?” he said. “Maybe we ought to come up with a better process.”

Simon and Sarasota Republican Rep. Fiona McFarland are carrying bills this Session to eliminate some of the barriers to compensation and raise payout caps.

SB 8 will next go to the Senate Committee on Education Pre-K – 12, after which it has one more stop before reaching a floor vote. HB 6507 cleared its first of three committees Friday with unanimous support.