Lawsuit Brought in Megabus Accident

 Posted on September 02, 2012 in Personal Injury

On August 2, Megabus driver Preston Taylor lost control of the bus heading south on Interstate 55, "veered off the road into the median, and slammed head-on into a concrete bridge support pillar near the Downstate city of Litchfield," according to the chtribune. The bus originated in Chicago, and was headed to Kansas City with stops planned in St. Louis and Columbia, Mo. There was only one death—that of a 25-year-old University of Missouri graduate student, according to the Tribune. Yet in late August the Tribune reported that Missouri-resident Michael Murphy filed a lawsuit against the bus company and its driver on behalf of himself and his daughter, both of whom were passengers when the bus crashed. Murphy filed the suit in Cook County Circuit Court. The suit was filed for "personal, permanent, and pecuniary injuries," in addition to the fact that both Murphy and his daughter were "witnesses to traumatic and fatal injuries and were caused to experience severe emotional distress." Megabus is a private company, but it's not the first time that Illinois has been in the news for a public transport incident as of late. On July 4, a bridge collapsed and a train in the Chicago suburbs derailed, killing two, according to the Huffington Post. According to Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics at the University of Michigan, during the five-year period between 2004 and 2008, "an average of 310 buses were involved in a fatal traffic accident each year." School buses were the most common operator type involved in an accident, and "urban transit authority buses represent the second most frequent bus type for fatal involvements." In the same period, private company buses, like Megabus, accounted for only 0.6 percent of total fatal bus involvements. If Murphy wins his case, it could set a precedent for subsequent fatal bus accident lawsuits. If you or someone you know has been injured in a traffic accident, don't go through it alone. Contact a dedicated Chicago-area injury attorney today.