After a bus driver was subjected to a court-ordered sleep study to test for sleep apnea, Greyhound Lines will have to pay $6 million to settle claims from passengers injured in a rollover bus accident, reports Courthouse News.
Lead plaintiff Ruthie Allen, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, sued the Dallas-based bus company, Motor Coach Industries International Inc., Firstgroup America and driver Dwayne Garrett for negligence in Dallas County Court in 2013. The victims are from 17 to 64 years old and have injuries ranging from compound fractures to back and neck injuries.
Allen claimed Garrett “fell asleep or lost consciousness at the wheel” while speeding on Interstate 70 during the trip from Cincinnati to Detroit on Sept. 14, 2013. The bus flipped over “several times before it came to rest in a corn field at least 100 feet off the highway.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Ryan Zehl, of Houston, announced the settlement on Tuesday, saying it “will bring needed awareness to the catastrophic consequences of untreated obstructive sleep apnea in commercial drivers.”
