Talk about a tailgating party from hell.

Eighty-six current and former members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon at Yale University are being sued for a tragic tailgating incident that occurred on the Harvard-Yale game day in 2011 and killed 30-year-old Nancy Barry, and injured a Yale student and a Harvard employee, reports the Los Angeles Times.

In the incident, Sigma Phi Epsilon member Brendan Ross was driving a rented U-Haul truck carrying beer kegs when he struck and killed Barry and injured the other two victims.

According to the Times, the lawyer for Barry's estate said, "We originally sued the national fraternity because we believe that the boys were acting as agents of the fraternity when the accident happened -- they had rented a truck and were bringing supplies to have a fraternity-sponsored party in the parking lot...but the national fraternity has tried to distance itself from the local chapter, saying the tailgate was not a fraternity-sanctioned event." 

Sigma Phi Epsilon Executive Director Brian Warren told the Times, "SigEp maintains that the members of our fraternity who were not actively involved in the accident bear no responsibility for the tragic incident."

A lawyer representing the injured Yale student said he expects a trial to start in the spring or fall of next year.

 

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