Family sues Greyhound over fatal crash in Arlington

The family of a woman killed in December on Interstate 30 in Arlington when a Greyhound bus struck the disabled SUV she was in is suing the bus company for more than $1 million.

Torii Davis, 28, was a passenger in a 2003 Ford Explorer that hit a concrete barrier in westbound lanes of Interstate 30 and came to a stop under the Collins Street bridge.

Police officers were already at the crash site when a Greyhound bus carrying about 40 passengers struck the disabled SUV, court records and police reports state.

Doris Edwards, Davis’ mother, is suing Greyhound Bus Lines; Larry Sampson, the bus driver; and Jonathan Moore, the driver of the SUV. The suit also names Danielle Stewart, the owner of the Ford Explorer, as a defendant.

Edwards is also suing on behalf of Davis’ 5-year-old daughter. Dallas attorney Kevin Kelley filed the suit in a civil court in Tarrant County late Tuesday.

Moore lost control of the SUV about 5:30 a.m. and collided with a concrete barrier that separates the HOV lane from the main lanes of the highway, according to court documents and Arlington police reports.

A 911 caller reported earlier that the SUV was “exhibiting erratic driving behavior and swerving,” police reported.

After the bus hit the SUV, Davis was pronounced dead at the scene because of the force of the impact from the bus, the lawsuit states. The other person in the SUV was flown to a local hospital with serious injuries, police said.

Sixteen bus passengers, who were traveling to Amarillo from Dallas, were taken to hospitals with injuries that are not life-threatening.

Westbound I-30 was shut down for hours.

The suit accuses Sampson of failing to pay attention and failing to properly respond to hazard signals on the roadway. Also, the suit says, he “failed to operate his vehicle at a safe speed” and used “faulty evasive action at the time of the collision.”

Moore was negligent, was driving the SUV at an unsafe speed and was “incompetent and unfit to safely operate a motor vehicle” at the time of the crash, the lawsuit alleges.

Moore’s “negligent conduct … was more than momentary thoughtlessness or inadvertence and constituted gross negligence,” the lawsuit states. Between the time of her injuries and her death, “Ms. Davis suffered horrible physical pain, suffering and mental anguish,” the lawsuit says.

Lanesha Gipson, a spokewoman for Greyhound, said that “due to pending litigation we don’t have any information to provide at this time.” She did say that the bus passengers all eventually got to their destination.

Edwards’ attorney Kelley could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Family sues Greyhound over fatal crash in Arlington."