Settlement in Deadly School Bus Crash Reached by Beasley Allen and Others

Beasley Allen’s Greg Allen and David Greene, of the Greene and Phillips Law Firm, secured a settlement for David Welch, the husband of Kim Welch, a school bus driver who suffocated beneath the weight of a defective school bus she was driving at the time of the crash on Interstate 65 in Mobile County. The settlement amount for this deadly school bus crash is confidential.

“While the individual drivers’ negligence initiated the crash, IC Bus and Navistar were ultimately responsible for Mrs. Welch’s death,” said Beasley Allen’s lead products liability lawyer, Greg Allen. “IC Bus and Navistar’s decision to use inadequate and ineffective roof supports were the primary contributors to this needless tragedy.”

According to Greene, “This settlement will have resounding implications and will hopefully lead to safer bus designs for our children. Mobile tax dollars are currently being spent on buses that have a safety-related defect.”

On Oct. 10, 2019, Kimberleigh Welch, a school bus driver for the Mobile County Public School System, was traveling south on I-65. Brandon Barner was traveling in a 2017 Nissan Altima in the left lane adjacent to the school bus when Mr. Barner moved right, causing the bus to veer off the exit ramp and tip over, causing the roof to collapse onto Mrs. Welch, suffocating her.

IC Bus and Navistar placed a defective, unsafe bus on the market without adequate roof and body structure. The rollover occurred at only 12 miles per hour. The corporate defendants created an unreasonable risk of harm by failing to use adequate designs that were available at the time the bus was designed, manufactured and sold. The defendants continue placing at risk the lives of school children and school bus drivers every day when these passengers board the defendants’ defective school buses.

The case was filed in the Circuit Court of Mobile County, Alabama, case number 02-CV-2019-903280.00. According to Allen, Presiding Judge Micheal Youngpeter was instrumental in getting the case resolved for this deserving family. Beasley Allen lawyers Stephanie Monplaisir and Kendall Dunson also represented the family in this deadly school bus crash case.