Arkansas Panel Awards $2.7M over Trooper Fatal Crash

A state panel recommended an award of $2.7 million to the estate of a woman who was killed in a crash with a speeding Arkansas State trooper.

The state Claims Commission made the award on Nov. 15 and assigned 90 percent of the blame for the crash to former trooper Andrew Rhew.

The 2009 collision claimed the life of 52-year-old Vickie Freemyer of Blytheville, who was broadsided at an intersection on Arkansas 77 in Manila.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Rhew’s cruiser was traveling 87 mph one-tenth of a second before impact.

Rhew was fired and reinstated twice after the crash but quit after a drunken driving arrest in Missouri. He pleaded no contest to negligent homicide in Freemyer’s death.

The Legislature must approve awards by the Claims Commission.