Out-of-court mediation failed to settle the dispute between plaintiff Wesley "Pat" Tinsley and defendant Crittenden Health Systems.

The lawsuit, seeking unspecified compensation for Pat and Caleb Tinsley, is set for trial Aug. 7 in Ohio County. The trial is scheduled in Ohio County since that is where the accident took place.

The suit claims negligence of the ambulance driver, Sherry Frazer, was a factor in the accident which killed Denise Tinsley of Marion and caused minor injuries to her son, Caleb, who was being transported to a doctor's appointment in Louisville when the wreck occurred. Another EMT in the ambulance, Margaretta Travis, was also injured.

The wreck occurred on the West Kentucky Parkway near Beaver Dam on June 19, 2001. In a deposition taken in February by prosecuting attorney Charles Moore of Owensboro, Frazer said she could not control the ambulance as it left the road.

According to the deposition, Frazer said she was driving in the right-hand lane of the interstate and hit what appeared to be a pothole with the tire on the front passenger side of the ambulance. She also describes being unable to get the vehicle to respond as it traveled off the highway before coming to rest in a line of small trees.

"The harder I tried to get it back on the road it wouldn't react to what I was trying to do," she stated in the deposition.

Denise Tinsley was in the back of the ambulance with Caleb and the EMT, while Pat Tinsley was asleep up front in the passenger's seat.

In his deposition, Pat Tinsley described hearing his name called and Frazer asking, "what happened," a couple of times in the seconds following the accident. Travis, who was transported by helicopter from the scene to the University of Louisville Hospital, doesn't remember anything about the accident, according to court documents.

An order was entered May 23 by Ohio County Circuit Judge Jim Dortch setting a deadline of July 1 for the defense to disclose names and qualifications of any expert witnesses it plans to use at the trial.

Reports from expert witnesses the prosecution plans to use in the trial, as well as depositions of Pat Tinsley, Frazer and Travis, have been added to the case file in recent months. Among the reports in the file are consultants' analyses of the ambulance and accident scene to determine if there were vehicle or road conditions that may have caused the accident.

Court records show that according to automotive consultant Philip H. Schaad III of Prospect, Ky., the accident "resulted from causes unrelated to the condition of the subject vehicle and its equipment."

Other documents added to the case file outline expert witnesses' evaluation of the loss Pat and Caleb Tinsley have suffered ­ both financially and in terms of parental consortium ­ with the death of Denise Tinsley.

Defense attorney Ted Bartenstein of Louisville filed a motion objecting to the admissibility of some of the expert witness information deposed in recent months during the pre-trial process.