Judgment Reinstated in Toby Keith’s Father’s Death

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has reinstated a $2.8 million judgment for the family of country music star Toby Keith in the 2001 interstate crash that killed Keith’s father, H.K. Covel.

The state’s highest court handed down the decision Tuesday. It reinstates damages awarded by a McClain County jury in 2007 but later reversed by the Court of Civil Appeals.

The judgment went against Elias Rodriguez and Pedro Rodriguez, doing business as Rodriguez Transportes of Tulsa, and Republic Western Insurance Co. of Arizona.

Evidence presented at trial indicated that Covel, of Moore, was northbound on Interstate 35 when his pickup truck was bumped by another vehicle, knocking it across the center median. It was then hit by a southbound bus owned by Rodriguez.

Keith’s family alleged the bus’s brakes were defective.