A wrongful death action has already been filed against Megabus in connection with the fatal Chicago pedestrian accident which killed a retired Illinois Supreme Court secretary last week. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the day after the tired secretary was killed Megabus agreed to pay over $5 million to settle a wrongful death case brought by the family of another Megabus pedestrian accident victim.
Megabus will pay the family of a deceased South Holland man $5.1 million for a fatal 2010 pedestrian accident that occurred only a few blocks away from last week’s pedestrian accident. The 64-year-old pedestrian was struck at the intersection of Adams and Des Plains by a bus that was turning left.
The bus driver was ticketed for hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk and reckless driving.
“The Megabus curbside loading zone is in that neighborhood. With the number of motor coaches on the roads combined with afternoon pedestrian traffic, any amount of inattentive driving would make a pedestrian death almost predictable,” the attorney for the family said, adding that bus maintenance problems were not to blame for the pedestrian accident.
Some engineering experts believe that Megabuses are unsafe to operate in heavy pedestrian areas because of a significant blind spot that can prevent a bus driver from seeing a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Driver distraction could make even the safest bus a deadly hazard however.
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