Driver without a seatbelt? Old tires? Lawsuits filed in USC frat bus crash that injured 11
After a bus crash involving a University of South Carolina fraternity injured 11 people on a southern Mississippi highway earlier this year, two students have sued the transportation company involved, claiming the bus was poorly maintained and the driver was reckless and not wearing a seatbelt.
The driver also sued the company and owner Emilio Dixon and Yokohama Tires, claiming a tire was faulty. Her lawsuit says she was wearing a seatbelt.
USC’s chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon was traveling to New Orleans on April 5 for an annual fraternity formal, a social highlight of the year, when a bus carrying fraternity members and their dates crashed after a tire blew out, The State reported at the time. Two people, including the driver, were airlifted to a hospital.
The first complaint, filed in June by USC student and fraternity member Lewis Merkle, alleges that Dixon Motor Xpress, the company that owned and operated the bus involved in the accident, was negligent. The company was required to meet or exceed safety standards for equipment, including tires. The tires on the bus came from Thailand and were over six years old, according to the lawsuit.
The tire would not have blown out if the bus had been properly maintained, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also claims that the bus driver, Tina Wilson, was reckless by driving too fast, failing to apply the brakes, not paying attention to the road and not wearing a seat belt.
Lewis, according to the lawsuit, suffered a concussion and several other minor injuries.
A second complaint, filed in July by USC student and fraternity guest Brennen Evans, made similar claims and called the crash “preventable.” Evans hit her head on the glass window of the bus and was knocked unconscious, according to the lawsuit, and suffered a concussion, minor injuries and “increased speech difficulties.”
The third complaint was filed in August by Wilson of Roebuck, the bus driver. She is suing Dixon Motor Xpress and Yokohama Tires. According to the lawsuit, a tire on the bus experienced tread separation “suddenly and without warning” and led to a sudden loss of control. Wilson suffered severe and permanent injuries. Yokohama sold a faulty tire, the lawsuit said, and Dixon Motors failed to properly service and inspect the tire on its vehicle.
Wilson’s lawsuit contends that she was belted in. Wilson’s attorney, Patrick Knie, said Wilson had used a seatbelt, but had to unbuckle to be able to get on top of the steering wheel to get more leverage to stop the bus before being catapulted through the windshield.
“It’s miraculous she survived,” Knie said, but her career as a driver, which she loved, is likely over.
The State has contacted Dixon Motor Xpress and Yokohama regarding the claims made in the three suits, and the attorneys involved.
After the tire blew on Interstate 10 in Hancock County, Mississippi, the bus shifted to one side of the road, according to the Sun Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi. The driver “took every piece of strength in her body to hold that steering wheel long enough to get it back down on the road,” police told the newspaper. When the vehicle hit the asphalt again, the windshield shattered and the driver was ejected and the bus hit a concrete barrier.
USC student Paul Clune then jumped out of his seat, ran to the front of the bus to grab the steering wheel and managed to get the bus to stop without rolling over.
Police called the driver, a “hero,” and a national spokesman for Sigma Phi Epsilon praised Clune for his quick actions to “prevent further tragedy.”
Mississippi authorities said 56 students were aboard the bus when it crashed. Besides the two patients airlifted, nine passengers were also taken the hospital.
The owner of Dixon Motor Xpress in Chester told The State in April that the accident was a “freak thing.” He said he was shocked by the incident. The company had maintained an accident-free record since its founding in 2019, and received a “satisfactory” rating for safety inspections from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
“We keep everything in top shape and don’t cut any corners, especially because we know we’re in the business of transporting people. The accident was a freak thing and I’m shocked it happened,” he told The State. “Moving forward, we’re going to continue to do whatever we have to in order to keep our operations safe.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
