MegabusCrash1.JPG

Photo of the Megabus double-decker bus that crashed Sept. 11, 2010 into the railroad bridge on Onondaga Lake Parkway in the town of Salina, killing four passengers and injuring 20 others.

(National Transportation Safety Board)

Syracuse, NY -- At least six lawsuits have been settled, including one for $3.1 million, over a Megabus double-decker bus crash that killed four people on Onondaga Lake Parkway.

Monika Mehta, the widow of Ashwani Mehta, settled her lawsuit against Megabus in 2012, two years after the Sept. 11, 2010, early-morning crash into the low railroad bridge over the parkway.

The settlement amount was not supposed to be made public, said Mehta's lawyer, Jonathan Reiter. But it's spelled out in a federal court document in Philadelphia, where it and most of the other cases were filed.

Monika Mehta and her children will get $2.2 million and her lawyer will get $945,000 of the settlement.

All the settlements include an agreement that neither side will disclose the amount.

Along with the four who died, 20 people were injured, including nine seriously, on the bus traveling from Philadelphia to Syracuse.

Daniel O'Brien, a lawyer for Lo Wah "Anna" Chu, would say only that his settlement amount was "very substantial." Chu suffered fractures "all over her body, literally from head to toe," O'Brien said.

She also suffered substantial scarring and needed multiple skin grafts, he said.

"My client was hurt about as bad as someone could get hurt without being killed," O'Brien said. Before the crash, Chu had a demanding job as a computer program designer, he said. She will never be able to do that work again, he said.

Chu was on the upper deck of the bus, in one of the four seats in the back, O'Brien said. She has moved to Australia to be with her family, he said.

"This was a life-altering event," O'Brien said.

Alan Feldman, a lawyer for passenger Carl Kerr, said Kerr suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash. He was sitting in the upper deck, in the second or third row from the front. Kerr was going from Philadelphia to Toronto on vacation, Feldman said.

A lawsuit filed by passenger Candice Burks went to trial in state court in Philadelphia this year. A jury awarded $677,000 to Burks, for compensatory damages only. The two sides are battling over whether a new trial should be held to determine punitive damages.

Feldman called the jury award in Burks' lawsuit modest in comparison to his client's settlement amount.

"I can't reveal the number we got but I can tell you that our settlement was substantially more than that," Feldman said. "Not even in the same universe."

Theodore Schaer, a lawyer for Megabus, did not respond to email and phone requests for an interview.

The facts of the case, including driver John Tomaszewski's being distracted by his personal GPS device instead of paying attention to road signs, made the question of negligence a non-issue, Feldman said.

A photo from the National Transportation Safety Board of the Megabus double-decker bus that crashed Sept. 11, 2010 into the railroad bridge on Onondaga Lake Parkway in the town of Salina.

"The bottom line is what I said to the mediator: A bus ran into a bridge -- not supposed to happen," he said. "The bus driver went by multiple signs warning that there was a low bridge and he crashed into it. I should have a thousand cases like this."

An Onondaga County Court judge acquitted Tomaszewski of criminally negligent homicide last year. After the verdict, Tomaszewski, 61, of New Jersey, expressed sympathy for the victims and their families. Despite the acquittal, he'll have to live with the tragedy for the rest of his life, he said then.

Among the four who died was Deanna Armstrong, 18, formerly of Camillus. Her relatives could not be reached to say whether they had sued. No record could found that her relatives sued.

Tomaszewski told police he'd taken a wrong turn and was using his personal GPS to try to get back on track. Using a personal GPS was against Megabus policy that drivers only use the bus's GPS, which takes into account bridges that are too low for the tall buses to drive under, Kerr's lawsuit said.

"The claim was that was he was looking at his personal GPS rather than the company-supplied GPS," Feldman said. "Personal GPSs don't take into account the heights of bridges and any clearance issues."

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the crash and released its findings last week at the request of The Post-Standard. Its reports show that two months before the crash, Tomaszewski had taken a course with Megabus: Height Clearance Awareness.

The NTSB found that Tomaszewski drove past at least nine warning signs on the parkway, including three that had flashing amber lights and one with flashing white strobe lights. The bridge had orange reflective tape across the bottom support beam.

Of the 28 passengers, 20 were injured.

After the crash, investigators found a power cord connected to the driver's cigarette lighter and a personal GPS device outside the bus, the NTSB said.

Tomaszewski told police he didn't brake because the crash "happened without warning," the NTSB report said.

One passenger, Raymond Reed, told investigators he'd ridden with Tomaszewski behind the wheel two other times and found him to be a good driver, the report said. After the crash, Reed heard Tomaszewski asking, "What happened?" and "Where are we?" the report said.

Tomaszewski told investigators he'd driven the route about 20 times before. His driver's log showed he'd made the trip four times in just the previous three weeks, the NTSB report said.

Tomaszewski told investigators he was lost and as a result may have been distracted while he was listening to his GPS, the report said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Administration conducted a compliance review of Megabus after the crash and gave it a satisfactory rating.

In the two years before the crash, Megabus vehicles had been involved in nine crashes - four with injuries and one with a fatality, according to that agency.

Kerr's lawsuit cited Megabus's safety evaluations from the Motor Carrier Management Information System. In the two years before the crash, Megabus drivers were cited for 73 violations, including speeding, improper lane changes, following too closely, log book violations and violations of vehicle size and weight restrictions, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit accused Megabus and its parent company, Coach USA, of defrauding customers with promises of safe, low-cost travel while cutting costs on safety.

"Despite a reported annual revenue of $400 million, (Megabus has) engaged in recklessly indifferent and/or grossly negligent conduct..." the lawsuit said.

Megabus discontinued providing service between Philadelphia and Syracuse in 2012.

Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 315-470-2187.

