BENTON — Chinese citizens who visited U.S. national parks in 2019 are suing a bus company, alleging the freightliner cab bus contained safety design flaws that resulted the deaths and serious injuries of several passengers during a rollover crash.
Hangxiao Che, Dengxing Chen and others filed a complaint Feb. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Daimler Trucks North America LLC, Daimler Trucks & Buses US Holding LLC, Truck Centers Inc., Embassy Speciality Vehicles and others, alleging strict product liability, negligence, breach of implied warranty and wrongful death.
According to their complaint, the plaintiffs were among a group of 29 Chinese citizens who traveled from the People's Republic of China to Los Angeles in September 2019 to visit national parks in the Western U.S. They were riding in a 36-passenger Embassy bus designed and manufactured by the defendants.
They allege that on Sept. 20, 2019, they were traveling on Utah State Route 12 in Garfield County, Utah, when one of the bus tires went off the roadway. When the driver attempted to steer the bus back onto the roadway, it rolled over, slid and hit a guardrail resulting in four passengers being ejected and 15 seriously injured. Of those passengers, 11 of them were ejected from the bus.
The plaintiffs allege the bus lacked proper stability control systems and had design flaws. They also claim the defendants failed to properly test their vehicles' crashworthiness, failed to have lane departure warning systems and other safety-related systems per Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration guidelines.
The plaintiffs seek compensation of more than $75,000, trial by jury and all other just relief. They are represented by Derek Brandt, Emily Kirk and Leigh Perica of McCune Wright Arevalo LLP in Edwardsville and Richard McCune, David Wright, Kristy Arevalo, Steven Haskins and Mark Richards of McCune Wright Arevalo LLP in Ontario, Calif.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-cv-180