Three people acting under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows individuals to sue the U.S. government, are seeking damages as a result of a car accident that occurred in Kasilof in September 2023. Because the defendant was an on-duty member of the Coast Guard, the lawsuit is being transferred from the state court to federal courts.
In September 2023, 56-year-old Dino Leite and 26-year-old Chase Logan were driving north on the Sterling Highway through Kasilof in Leite’s daughter’s car, a Toyota Camry. Court documents show Leite slowed the vehicle down upon reaching the Tustumena Elementary school zone, where the speed limit drops from 55 mph to 20 mph when yellow lights are flashing. The time was 3:40 p.m., and the school zone was active.
Petty Officer First Class Bret Nemitz was driving a government-issued Ford F250 Super Duty behind the two men. Data from Nemitz’s vehicle shows he was traveling 75 miles per hour in the seconds leading up to the crash. Just before impact, Nemitz braked heavily, slowing the vehicle to 46.7 mph.
The force of the truck’s impact with the Camry’s rear propelled the car across the centerline and into oncoming traffic, where another vehicle struck its passenger side. Central Emergency Services pronounced Leite dead at the scene when they arrived 14 minutes later. Logan was transported by ambulance to Central Peninsula Hospital, but he passed away shortly after arrival.
Nemitz told Alaska State Troopers he did not see the school zone’s flashing lights.
Logan’s fiance and Leite’s wife are both seeking damages for property loss, survival and wrongful death, and Leite’s daughter is seeking damages for her car. According to court documents, the Camry was destroyed “as a direct and proximate result of Nemitz’s negligence.”
The lawsuit also alleges Nemitz’s actions violated six provisions of Alaska law, including alteration of speed limits, following too closely and reckless and negligent driving.
“This was a preventable collision that occurred at an excessive rate of speed in an active school zone with lights flashing, that took the lives of the two men the family loved and relied upon, and left them devastated,” Josh Cooley, the attorney representing Leite’s daughter, wrote in an email on Tuesday.
The case is slated to be heard in Anchorage before judge Russel Holland. Though the government shutdown has paused any civil litigation in which the U.S. is a party, the case should be ready for trial within a year.
