Texarkana,TX : Second lawsuit filed over bus crash on may, Friday 26th 2017

A second lawsuit concerning a deadly collision in March between an 18-wheeler and a Mount Pleasant, Texas, school bus carrying members of a high school track team is now pending in a Texarkana federal court.

The Mount Pleasant boys track team was traveling on Highway 271 about 10 miles north of Mount Pleasant on their way home from a meet in Paris, Texas, when a big rig being driven by Rooney Trucking driver Bradley Farmer veered into the bus's lane and struck it head on, according to news reports. As the bus loaded with student athletes spun out of control, a car being driven by an assistant coach following the bus was also struck, killing the coach and Farmer. Of the 34 youngsters on the bus, 34 were transported to area hospitals with injuries.

A civil suit seeking damages for one of the injured track team members was moved Wednesday from Titus County district court to federal court in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas at the request of Rooney Trucking, a Missouri corporation. The suit was first filed in Titus County May 18 on behalf of Alma Delia Atrizco-Alvarez as next friend of her minor son by Tyler, Texas, lawyer Abraham Carreon.

"The tremendous impact between tractor-trailer and school bus caused plaintiff to suffer serious injuries including losing consciousness for several hours," the complaint states. "Due to the severity of (the boy's) injuries, he was transported by helicopter to a medical facility."

The suit alleges the trucking company was negligent in a variety of ways including in training and supervising employees. The complaint asks for damages to compensate the boy for pain and mental anguish, physical impairment, loss of earning capacity and for past and future medical expenses.

The Atrizco-Alvarez suit is the second concerning the March 23 fatal bus crash. Last month a different suit, filed on the behalf of five students and their parents by Tyler lawyer Nuru Witherspoon was moved by Rooney Trucking's lawyers to the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas in April. Witherspoon recently filed an amended complaint in the case removing the names of parents and replacing them with the names of students in instances where the student has since reached the age of 18.

The plaintiffs in the suit Witherspoon filed include: Diondre William; Xxavion Neal; Ashton Brown; Kyron Saunders; Tyson Harper; Celeste Brown on behalf of her minor son; and Craig Jackson on behalf of his minor son.

Rooney has filed an answer to the first suit, which alleges the Mount Pleasant Independent School District and/or Durham School Services is at least partly to blame for the injuries suffered by the students because the bus was not outfitted with seat belts.

"Rooney would show that had the occupants of the school bus involved in the accident been wearing seat belts that some or all of their alleged injuries would have been less severe or prevented," Rooney's response to the complaint states.

Both cases have been assigned to U.S. D

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Second lawsuit filed over bus crash