Injured U.S. woman sues B.C. tour-bus company over deadly accident
By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, January 29, 2013 - 0 Comments
SEATTLE – A tour-bus company based in B.C. is facing another lawsuit over a…
SEATTLE – A tour-bus company based in B.C. is facing another lawsuit over a crash in northeast Oregon last month that killed nine people and injured 38 others.
The accident occurred on Interstate-84 near Pendleton, Ore., on Dec. 30 after the bus operated by Mi Joo Tour & Travel crashed through a guardrail and tumbled down a snowy embankment.
The Oregonian newspaper reports that 74-year-old Eun Sook Uhm of Lynnwood, Wash., is suing the company and seeking unspecified damages for herself and her husband, who was not on the bus.
She remains hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Wash., with injuries described in the lawsuit as “severe and permanent.”
The suit, one of several filed against the Coquitlam, B.C.-based tour bus company, alleges it allowed the bus driver to work without proper rest.
Tour company lawyer Mark Sheer has said the driver had plenty of sleep before the crash and that black ice was a major factor.
Oregon State Police continue their investigation. The tour company has been barred from operating in the United States and Canada.
None of the allegations contained in the lawsuits have been proven in court.
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Two B.C. residents file suit against bus company and driver after Oregon crash
By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 6:29 PM - 0 Comments
VANCOUVER – Two British Columbia passengers who survived a bus crash that killed nine…
VANCOUVER – Two British Columbia passengers who survived a bus crash that killed nine others on an Oregon highway have filed a lawsuit against the tour bus company and the driver.
June Won Kim and his wife Hee Eun Kim say in legal action that the bus was mechanically defective and the tires were inadequate for the road conditions on Dec. 30, when the bus crashed through a guardrail on Interstate-84 and tumbled down a snowy embankment near Pendleton, Ore.
The couple’s B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit claims Mi Joo Tour and Travel failed to equip the bus with adequate headlights, windshield wipers and warning devices to ensure it could be safely operated on the journey from Las Vegas to Vancouver.
The Kims also allege the driver, Haeng-Kyu Hwang of Surrey, was too tired, speeding, failed to obey road signs and operated a vehicle contrary to restrictions on his driver’s licence.
The couple say they both suffered a brain injury, collapsed lung and back and neck injuries resulting in permanent disability.
Their lawsuit follows another by two Korean exchange students in Tacoma, Wash., who say they witnessed a nightmarish scene aboard the bus as they lay among dead passengers.
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Police struggle to ID victims of Vancouver-bound bus crash in Oregon
By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at 11:03 AM - 0 Comments
PENDLETON, Ore. – Investigators in Oregon are trying to piece together the final moments…
PENDLETON, Ore. – Investigators in Oregon are trying to piece together the final moments before a Vancouver-bound tour bus carrying 47 people careened down a steep hillside, ejecting some of the passengers and killing nine.
Police said they expected investigators to complete an inspection of the bus and an inventory of personal property and documents on Tuesday.
Oregon State Police identified one of the nine victims as a 57-year-old Washington man. Authorities said Dale William Osborn of Spanaway was killed in Sunday’s crash and his wife, Sue Osborn, remained hospitalized in Pendleton.
His daughter, Jennifer Sherman of Colorado Springs, said she was told her father was hit in the head by a rock while her mother was thrown into a river bed.
She last spoke to her father two weeks ago.
“He was very happy,” Sherman said. “He’s a very good man.”
Authorities have not yet released the names of the other eight people who died, but police said the four men and four women were of Asian descent and one female victim may be a juvenile.
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Amid chaos, police struggle to ID victims of Vancouver-bound bus crash in Oregon
By The Associated Press - Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 10:56 AM - 0 Comments
PENDLETON, Ore. – Investigators in Oregon are trying to piece together the final moments…
PENDLETON, Ore. – Investigators in Oregon are trying to piece together the final moments before a Vancouver-bound tour bus carrying 48 people careened down a steep hillside, ejecting some of the passengers and killing nine.
Police said Monday they still weren’t sure how fast the bus was travelling before the crash on a partly icy highway in a rural mountain pass east of Pendleton.
The bus was carrying tourists, including some who had been living in Canada, on the final leg of a nine-day tour of the western United States.
Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said it could take a month or more to determine whether the driver, a 54-year-old man from Vancouver, will face any charges.
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B.C. teens feared for their lives during Oregon bus crash that killed nine
By The Canadian Press - Monday, December 31, 2012 at 5:07 PM - 0 Comments
PENDLETON, Ore. – A 17-year-old boy from Vancouver says he thought he was going…
PENDLETON, Ore. – A 17-year-old boy from Vancouver says he thought he was going to die when the tour bus he was travelling on crashed in northeastern Oregon, killing nine people and injuring dozens of others.
Speaking through a translator, the boy and his 16-year-old friend who moved to Vancouver from South Korea two years ago recounted details of the crash to The East Oregonian and The Oregonian newspapers.
The boys, who declined to give their names, said they were seated near the rear of the bus Sunday morning when it swerved a few times, hit a highway guardrail and flipped.
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9 killed, more than 2 dozen hurt when charter tour bus veers off icy highway
By The Canadian Press and The Associated Press - Monday, December 31, 2012 at 7:59 AM - 0 Comments
PENDLETON, Ore. – RCMP in British Columbia were asked Sunday to help notify the…
PENDLETON, Ore. – RCMP in British Columbia were asked Sunday to help notify the relatives of people on a Vancouver-bound tour bus that crashed in Oregon Sunday morning, killing nine people.
Police were asked to notify relatives in the Vancouver-area, said RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen.
“Oregon state police has requested our assistance in regards to that tragic crash in their jurisdiction and requested that we assist in some of the next of kin notifications that may need to be done here in the Lower Mainland or even outside the Lower Mainland,” said Thiessen in an interview.
