Lawsuit: IN Dispatchers Didn't Relay Calls in Fatal Flooding

The father of two girls who drowned in flooding last year is suing an Indiana county over the failure of 9-1-1 dispatchers to send help after calls came in about a bridge being washed away.

On March 20, six people died when floodwaters washed out the bridge over the Sanes Creek in Laurel. Josh Mosier's two daughters--4 and 7--were among the victims, and he has filed a lawsuit against Franklin County, including the sheriff's department and the highway department, WLWT-TV reports. 

According to the lawsuit, the county's dispatch center received three 9-1-1 calls about problems around the Sanes Hill area. The second of those calls came less than an hour before the car Mosier's daughters were in was caught in the flooding.

"The bridge here on Sanes Creek at the bottom of Sanes Hill is completely washed out. It's gone!" the caller told dispatchers. "Somebody better get down here and block it off before somebody goes into the river."

After the call was taken, it was logged as an information-only call, meaning authorities didn't need to respond to the incident, the lawsuit claims. The chief deputy was told about the call and its status when he contacted dispatchers hours later as rescuers searched for victims.

According to the lawsuit, the 9-1-1 supervisor and two dispatchers working at the time had been posting to social media when the calls came in. The sheriff's department fired the supervisor a week after the incident, but the other dispatchers remain on the job, according to WLWT.

The county, however, claims it wasn't negligent in the incident. Officials also told WLWT that the county was immune from liability as a government entity.