October 13, 2004 - Bus Company Faces Wrongful Death Suit

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Early Saturday morning, McKinley Jacobs, a railroad worker crippled since 1984 lost his loving caretaker.  Fannie Jacobs was one of the 14 people killed when her tour bus toppled over en route to Tunica, Miss.  The incident occurred as the bus passed throuh Alabama. On Tuesday, Jacobs was the first to file a wrongful death suit in Cook County Circuit Court against the husband and wife owned bus company, its owner and the bus driver, who was among the dead.

The suit, which seeks at least $150,000 in damages, claims carelessness on the part of the bus driver, Herbert Walker, that the bus' braking systems were below operating standards, and that it wasn't properly maintained by Walters Bus Service Inc. and its owner, Roosevelt Walters.

An attorney representing the bus company and its insurance carrier said the Walters firm has the amount of insurance required by law, $5 million. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the accident, so the attorney for the bus company says it's too early to speculate as to who or what is to blame.

Exactly what caused the bus to veer from the road and roll over Saturday morning just after five o'clock is still being investigated. Authorities are focusing on normal causes for such accidents, including driver fatigue, the design of the bus, or operation and roadway configuration on the stretch of Interstate 55 where the crash occurred.

The results of an autopsy as well as any other details of the accident are left closed as the Arkansas State Police continues its investigation. Audio tapes of the two 911 calls that reported the accident were relased by the Crittenden County officials, however.  A woman who witnessed the accident from a passing car made the calls.

"There's about 30 people out here. I mean people are laying all in the field. A lot of them hurt. You got about 30 on the bus," she said.

Crash survivor Gloria Phoenix, 72, was released from St. Bernard's Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark., on Tuesday. Another woman was released the day of the crash. Other survivors were being treated in Little Rock and Memphis, Tenn. Two were in critical condition, two in serious condition, six in fair condition and four in good condition.