Wrongful death suits filed in fiery crash that killed 6, including Tusky Valley students
Estates of at least three people who died in a fiery Nov. 14 chain-reaction crash in Licking County that killed six Tuscarawas Valley students, staff and parents filed wrongful death lawsuits against a central Ohio trucking company and its driver.
The estate of 18-year-old bus passenger John Mosley filed suit in June, and the estate of 15-year-old Tuscarawas Valley clarinet player Katelyn Owens filed suit in March against defendants Fyda Freightliner Columbus; Timothy J. Fyda; Pioneer Trails, Inc.; Mid-State Systems, along with Lee Zazworsky, Donald Ray Wagler and Jacob DeWayne McDonald, who was driving the tractor-trailer that caused the chain reaction at the time of the crash.
Fyda is an officer at Fyda Freightliner. Pioneer Trails is a for-hire motor carrier. Mid-State Systems is a motor carrier company and Zazworsky is its president.
A third lawsuit filed in April by the estate of Shannon Wigfield, 45, a New Philadelphia English teacher who was in a car involved in the crash, also included Honda Logistics North America, One World Logistics of America, CEVA Contract Logistics U.S. and Daimler Truck North America as defendants.
The lawsuits are all filed in Franklin County.
What do the Tusky Valley bus crash lawsuits say?
In the complaints, attorneys argue that Fyda Freightliner, a truck dealership with a location in Columbus, sold the semi to Mid-State Systems without standard safety systems. The companies have denied responsibility for the crash in response to the complaints.
Attorneys who filed the lawsuits on behalf of the families say that the semi-truck was not equipped with crash prevention safety systems that could have prevented the crash and accused the driver, the trucking company, and the company that sold the truck of negligence.
What happened in the Nov. 14 crash?
On the day of the crash, 54 students, teachers and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools in Zoarville, Tuscarawas County, were traveling to the final day of The Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus.
That morning, a semi-truck owned by Hebron-based trucking company Mid State Systems following too closely in traffic failed to slow down and struck another vehicle before hitting the charter bus on I-70 in Licking County, according to a report from the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The impact forced the bus into two more vehicles. At least 18 others suffered injuries in the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
What is next in the lawsuits?
Court records show a schedule is in the process of being made for attorneys to take depositions of the key people involved, including McDonald, Fyda and witnesses.
A trial in the case is currently scheduled for 2025 but depending on how long the discovery process takes — or how long the attorneys take to share information with each other — that date could change.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio bus crash prompts lawsuits from Tusky Valley victims' estates
