ATLANTA (AP) — Two children of R&B singer Angie Stone are suing a trucking company, truck manufacturer and others, seeking damages for an Alabama interstate crash that killed Stone.
The lawsuit says the driver lost control of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van and when he tried to steer it back onto the highway, it flipped over, with the 63-year-old Stone, her bandmates and entourage inside.
Stone was a Grammy-nominated R&B singer and member of the all-female hip-hop trio The Sequence. She was known for the hit song “Wish I Didn’t Miss You," and flourished in the early 2000s as neo-soul began to dominate R&B. She was on her way back to her Atlanta-area home after a performance at a Mardi Gras ball in Mobile, Alabama.
The suit was filed Tuesday in a Georgia state court in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville. It says Stone and the other occupants of the van survived the initial predawn wreck and that passersby pulled over and helped five of the nine occupants crawl out. Stone was still trying to get out when an 18-wheeler carrying a load of sugar slammed into the van, the lawsuit says. That impact ejected Stone and pinned her under the van, where she died, the lawsuit claims. Sheila Hopkins, still inside the van, suffered injuries.
Hopkins and Stone's two children, Diamond Stone and Michael D'Angelo Archer, filed the lawsuit. They're suing the van driver, the truck driver, the man and companies who owned the van, the trucking company and the maker of the 18-wheel truck. The suit claims that the truck’s collision avoidance system was faulty and failed to detect the van lying stationary in one lane of the interstate. The suit also claims that the truck driver was listening to music on headphones, wasn't paying attention and never braked before slamming into the van at nearly 70 mph (110 kph).
Neither trucking company CSRT of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or truck manufacturer Daimler Truck North America of Portland, Oregon, immediately responded to emails seeking comment Thursday.
In an Instagram post before the crash, Stone had told fans she was excited about upcoming events and “getting back in the mix.”
“A lot of stuff is going on that I don’t want to just let out of the bag just yet,” she said. “But you can see that there’s a big grin on my face.”
The singer-songwriter created hits like “No More Rain (In This Cloud)” which reached No. 1 for 10 weeks on Billboard’s Adult R&B airplay chart; “Baby” with legendary soul singer Betty Wright, another No. 1 hit; and “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” and “Brotha.” Her 2001 album “Mahogany Soul” reached No. 22 on the Billboard 200, while 2007’s “The Art of Love & War” peaked at No. 11.
The church-grown singer was born in Columbia, South Carolina. Her group The Sequence, on the trailblazing imprint Sugar Hill Records, became one of the first female groups to record a rap song. The group's “Funk You Up,” which has been sampled by numerous artists, including Dr. Dre. Stone later joined the trio Vertical Hold before launching her solo career.
Jeff Amy, The Associated Press
