Family and fellow church members have found some form of closure after a settlement has recently been reached regarding a faulty tire on a bus that was traveling with church members in Tennessee. The incident, which took place in 2013, took the lives of five church members, an SUV passenger and a tractor-trailer driver. After considerable investigation, authorities found that the tire, which exploded from the inside out, was faulty and caused the bus to crash, prompting the wrongful death lawsuit.
The bus had been traveling from a Jubilee in Gatlinburg when the tire suddenly exploded, causing the vehicle to cross the median, where it struck a car then careened into a tractor-trailer. The Tennessee Highway Patrol completed a forensic evaluation of what was left of the tire and concluded that the tire was defective both in design and manufacturing. Experts figure that the tire failed from within after possibly hitting something in the road within 50 miles of the accident.
The bus driver, his wife and five bus passengers died in the accident. A 24-year-old male passenger of the car, who was wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the backseat and died during the accident. The 66-year-old truck driver succumbed to his injuries as well.
After three years of litigation in this Tennessee wrongful death lawsuit, a settlement has finally been reached between surviving family members of the victims and the tire manufacturer. Attorneys stayed the course, and armed with forensic evidence, they were able to prove the fault in the manufacturing of the tire. The compensation awarded from the settlement may help to cover the victims’ outstanding medical bills and burial costs along with helping the families move forward without their loved ones.
Source: charlotteobserver.com, “Settlement reached in church bus crash that killed 8”, Joe Marusak, Jan. 30, 2018