Crime & Safety
Centreville Parents Settle Lawsuit Against 'Four Loko' Makers Blamed in Son's Death
The energy and alcohol drink is under fire in several states. Suit says teen ran into road and was struck by neighbor's car and killed.
The parents of a Centreville teenager who was killed by a car after drinking Four Loko, a high-energy alcohol drink, have settled a lawsuit with the manufacturer, according to a report by Madison.com.
The drink has been blamed for several deaths around the country, and the company that makes it is facing lawsuits in Ohio, Florida, Illinois and elsewhere. ABC News has reported that three cans of Four Loko carries the alcohol equivalent of 18 light beers and the caffeine of six cups of coffee.
The attorney for the parents, John and Carla Rupp, said their son, 15-year-old John D. “Bo” Rupp II, consumed two, 23.5-ounce cans of Four Loko before his September 2010 traffic death.
Four Loko is a caffeinated alcohol drink made by City Brewing Company of LaCrosse, WI, a plant under a contract with Phusion Projects of Chicago.
The teen began behaving erratically at a concert—so much that staff at Jiffy Lube Live Amphitheater in Bristow called his parents to come get him, federal court documents show.
Rupp, then a sophomore at Westfield High School, apparently ran in and out of traffic near his Virginia Run home on Pleasant Valley Road then sat down in the middle of the roadway and was struck by a neighbor's car. He died the next day.
Jeffery Simon, an attorney for the boy's parents, told the Wisconsin publication that he would not comment on the specifics of the settlement, but did say they were "mutually satisfactory."
Four Loko contains 12 percent alcohol but masks the effects of the alcohol with other ingredients, the lawsuit against the company alleges.
The lawsuit goes on to say the makers of Four Loko purposely concealed the dangers of its product by adding sweeteners to hide the taste of alcohol and packaging it to look like an energy drink and not an alcohol beverage, according to the Madison.com report.
In November of 2010, the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the company to reformulate its drink, citing other cases of injury associated with the drink's consumption. The company said it completely removed the caffeine and lowered the level of alcohol in the beverage before the FDA's written request to do so.
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