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Two Korean Victims File Suit In Deadly Oregon Bus Crash

Oregon State Police

Two young victims of a deadly bus crash in northeast Oregon that happened just before New Year’s Eve have filed a new lawsuit.  They say the driver was fatigued and going too fast.

The two boys – 15 and 16 -- who filed the lawsuit, describe a harrowing scene. The boys are from Korea, in the U.S. on student visas. They say the tour bus flipped end-over-end as it fell hundreds of feet down an embankment. The boys say they were knocked unconscious or fainted and awoke to screams, people pinned in seats and dead bodies all around them.

Charles Herrmann is their Tacoma/Seattle-based lawyer. Herrmann says the driver should have been going at much slower speeds given the road warning signs the bus passed before the accident.

“See, he’s got a schedule to keep. He needs to get all the way back to Vancouver, B.C., from Boise, Idaho. And he’s driving too fast.”

Herrmann says his clients are still in shock. They are cousins and live in Tacoma with a family friend.

On the Web:

Complaint: Kang, Kyoung-sen v Mi Joo Tour & Travel (Herrmann Scholbe)
Lawsuit press release (Herrmann Scholbe)

Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.