Our bus accident litigation team consists of 10 attorneys, including Jennifer Yi. Ms. Yi is an attorney and a member of the Korean American Bar Association. She previously worked on the trial team representing the family of a Korean businessman, Si Young Lee, who was killed in a crash of a Robinson helicopter while visiting Washington. Ms. Yi traveled to Busan and Seoul to assist in the prosecution of this very complex case and worked closely with our Korean clients. Our firm successfully resolved that case on the eve of trial in March of 2012.
Baum Hedlund is interested in representing the passengers and their families in this bus accident and fully investigating this tragedy and holding the Canadian defendant, Mi Joo Tour & Travel, Ltd., accountable. Our law firm is committed to helping eliminate unsafe and illegal commercial vehicle practices. We have represented bus passengers across the nation in 80 bus accident cases.
The December 30 bus crash occurred on a very hazardous stretch of Interstate 84 called Cabbage Hill. There are reports from witnesses with the opinion that the bus was going too fast under the existing conditions. The actual cause of the loss of control is still being investigated by law enforcement. However, these types of tour bus tragedies often occur because the driver is speeding to keep an unrealistic schedule or due to sleep deprivation of the operator occasioned by the company’s demands for continuous operation. Both of these scenarios appear to be present here.
More importantly, according to our bus accident attorneys, when such a catastrophe occurs, there are substantial challenges to obtaining adequate compensation for the victims. Regulations only require a minimum total amount of insurance to be carried by bus operators, which is rarely sufficient to adequately compensate all the injured victims and the families of those who are killed. Unfortunately, the victims of this crash will likely face this challenge. Therefore, it is important to have a law firm that can seek out other companies whose unsafe practices may have led to this tragedy and hold them responsible. For example, it appears this bus had no seatbelts – despite the fact that manufacturers have known for decades that seatbelts save lives and, despite the availability of seatbelts that the manufacturer could have installed but did not.
For decades, Baum Hedlund has focused their practice on wrongful death and personal injury involving commercial transportation accidents on a nationwide basis. As part of that focus, Baum Hedlund has developed the skill and resources to explore possible defects in the vehicles and pursue manufacturers who expose the public to unsafe products. Such lawsuits often involve more than one state’s law or court system, and numerous complex choices and decisions may have to be made to maximize recovery or streamline procedures. Typically, it takes enormous perseverance and expertise to challenge these global companies who have vast resources to fight against those who would expose these unsafe practices and hold them accountable.
We have handled many lawsuits involving every state’s laws at one time or another, including over 107 wrongful death and personal injury cases involving the state of Oregon, 161 cases involving the state of Washington, and 21 cases involving Canadians or accidents in Canada.