The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has been named in a lawsuit in connection to a deadly tour bus crash last December.
Three people died in the crash, Oun Hong Jung, 67, Chun Ho Bahn, 63, and Joon Wha Kim, 63, and attorneys for their estates are seeking $10 million in punitive damages, wrongful death, and injuries. Survivor Youn Banh, 66, Chun Ho Banh’s husband, has also been named in the lawsuit.
38 people were injured in the crash when the bus was making a trip between Los Angeles and Vancouver on a nine day tour.
The bus went off the freeway east of Pendleton and crashed down a snowy embankment.
Operators of the bus, Mi Joo Tour & Travel, Ltd, based in Vancouver, and the driver of the bus, Haeng-Kyu Hwang, are named as defendants in the case.
The lawsuit claims the Department of Transportation was negligent in failing to equip the stretch of Interstate 84 with barriers of sufficient strength to prevent vehicles from crashing down the embankment.
It claims they also failed to clean and plow the roadway in that area, to properly warn vehicle operators of the unsafe conditions, and for failing to offer another route given the unsafe conditions on the road.
Comments