In another high profile personal injury claim against national bus carrier Greyhound, the family of a woman killed in a crash involving one of the company’s vehicles has won a $5 million jury verdict. Officials say Son Thi Thanh Hoang, a 37-year-old Vietnamese national, was killed in the accident.
According to court filings, Hoang was a passenger on a bus traveling from New York City to Cleveland in October, 2013, when the bus rear-ended an 18-wheeler driven by Akos Gubica. The force of the collision apparently threw Hoang from the bus. During an investigation after the crash, other passengers told police that the bus driver appeared to be visibly tired before the bus ever left New York. They also testified that she had been fishtailing for miles before she plowed into the back of the truck. Investigators believe that she fell asleep at the wheel.
Unfortunately, this is just one of many similar incidents involving Greyhound buses:
- In February, 2008, a Greyhound near Scranton, Pennsylvania rolled onto its side, also a result of driver fatigue
- Just last January, a Greyhound in southern California overturned, causing the deaths of two passengers and injuring dozens more. Passengers on that bus said they saw the driver nod off just before the crash.
An investigation of Greyhound’s practices indicated that the company does not track driver fatigue as it relates to accidents, and never lists driver fatigue as the cause of an accident. Instead, the company has always referred to accidents simply as “preventable” or “non-preventable.”
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