Plaintiffs awarded $17.5 million from Valentine’s Day bus crash

By: Mitchell L. Ginsburg

Waco, Texas – It was Valentine’s Day 2003. Tragedy struck swiftly and with no mercy on that dark, rainy night on I-35 near Hewitt, Texas. Seven dead and many more injured in what is now known as the Valentine’s Day Bus Crash.

Members of the Memorial Baptist Church in Temple were traveling to Dallas for a Christian music concert, when the bus in which they were riding crossed the center median and collided head on with a Chevy Suburban. The bus never reached its destination.

The survivors of the bus crash, and the heirs of those that did not survive, filed suit in Waco against not only the bus driver and his employer, but against the bus manufacturer Motor Coach Industries of Schaumburg, Illinois. And on Thursday, the jury decided who was at fault for the Valentine’s Day Bus Crash.

In unprecedented fashion, the Waco jury, in awarding $17.5 million to the Plaintiffs, placed the fault on Motor Coach Industries for failing to equip the bus with seatbelts for the passengers. Defense attorneys argued that federal regulations do not require buses to be equipped with seatbelts. They argued that it was the bus driver’s negligence that caused the wreck. But the jury would not be swayed.

The jurors recognized the dangers involved with placing a motor vehicle into service without seatbelts. “If that bus turns over, right out the window you go,” said one juror, adding “You’ve got no protection at all.”

Motor Coach Industries vows to appeal the verdict. And facing a second trial from the same incident, Motor Coach Industries hopes that the tort reform laws passed in 2003 will help them survive the second trial. The controversial tort reform laws did not apply to the first trial as suit was filed prior to the law taking effect. The second suit was filed after the tort reform laws took effect.