More survivors join suit in deadly bus crash
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The legal problems are piling up for the Canadian tour company whose bus crashed on an icy highway in Eastern Oregon last month, killing nine passengers and injuring almost 40.
An attorney who filed a lawsuit in Tacoma, Wash., on behalf of two foreign exchange students who survived the crash said Wednesday that five additional victims have joined the complaint.
Moreover, the suit has been amended to add the president of Mi Joo Tour & Travel as a defendant. The lawsuit states Edward Kang was added because the factors it alleges to have led to the crash — driver fatigue, ignored warnings and excessive speed for the icy conditions — were triggered by management policies, "based upon cost and profit considerations rather than safety of their passengers."
Also added as a defendant was the bus driver, Haeng Kyu Hwang, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
"To be candid with you, I'm not interested in going up there and grabbing the guy by his ankles and seeing what we squeeze out of him," attorney Charles Herrmann said. "But he is primarily culpable and I think it is better that he's in the lawsuit."
Police have yet to say what caused the Dec. 30 crash on Interstate 84 east of Pendleton. In the wake of crash, government authorities in Canada and the U.S. banned the company from operating buses on their roads. The U.S. investigation found the driver had been on duty for 92 hours in the eight-day stretch before the crash, exceeding the 70-hour federal limit.
Company attorney Mark P. Scheer responded to the allegations by saying the driver had plenty of sleep the night before the crash and black ice, not excessive speed, was a major factor in the bus losing control.
Besides the Tacoma-based suit, a Canadian husband and wife have sued the tour company in their home country. The lawsuit filed on behalf of June Won Kim and his wife Hee Eun Kim accuses the driver of speeding, failing to stop, ignoring traffic rules and knowingly driving a defective vehicle.
Both lawsuits seek unspecified damages.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
The bus driver was driving beyond the conditions of the road. Yes, he should be named as a defendant, as should anyone else in the bus company who presses for profit, not for safe travels. That includes the president of the bus company.
GOING 70 mph on Deadman Pass in the winter? Lawsuit right there. With known black ice all over the place? LAWSUITS right there.Â
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Lives were wrongfully taken on that day, people. How about talking about when the driver will be prosecuted for manslaughter? Multiple counts of MANSLAUGHTER or negligent homicide? How come that conversation is not happening?
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If you or I were exceeding the speed limit - blasting down that highway in winter behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle with dozens of people sitting behind me, after I had exceeded the contracted number of hours I could legally drive in any contracted period of time - we would all be behind prison bars - today. Awaiting felony prosecution for MURDER.Â
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@englishdaisy 70 hour limitation of on duty driving, that is not the speed he was going.
 @flyroy  @englishdaisy flyroy - Stay up with the published facts, dude. He exceeded the number of hours he could drive as a commercial driver in a seven day period - by over 10 hours. That is separate from the estimated (by eyewitness accounts) 70 mph hours he was whizzing down the road through treacherous Deadman Pass. In winter. With black ice conditions.Â
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Clear enough now? It should be. Al of those known facts set the scene for a show down in criminal as well as civil court - if you apply them to NEGLIGENT and RECKLESS driving standards. Resulting in multiple deaths, trauma and injury to survivors. Quite reasonable to predict far more than a lawsuit in this driver's future. And that is just at this preliminary stage in the criminal as well as civil liability investigations.Â