WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The family of Arlana Haynes, the 6-year-old Houston County student fatally injured in a school bus wreck in 2018, has filed a lawsuit against the bus manufacturer.
According to a news release from Beasley Allen law firm, one of the firms representing the Haynes family, they’re suing Blue Bird Global Corporation.
In the lawsuit filed in Bibb County this week, they allege the bus was defectively designed by being top heavy and prone to rollovers, and also because it didn't have seat belts for children. The suit also says the public was not warned of the danger.
“The defendant’s greed and complete disregard for human life resulted in a young child never returning home to her family,” said attorney Kendall Dunson. “Blue Bird Global Corporation failed to make its product safe and failed to warn the public about the danger. Sadly, our client’s young daughter paid the price for the defendant’s failures.”
The news release from Beasley Allen states:
The defendant, Blue Bird Global Corporation, knew that the bus was dangerous, the complaint alleges, because it was unstable and prone to rolling over due to its design. Prior to Arlana’s death, the defendant had fought other lawsuits for years, so it was well aware that the dangerously designed bus was injuring and killing unsuspecting passengers. The plaintiff also explained that the defendant knew if the bus rolled over then unbelted students could be violently ejected from their seats, thrown out the door and rolled over by the bus – the circumstances that occurred in the plaintiff’s case.
CASE HISTORY
Driver Shalita Harris was driving a 2000 Bluebird bus on Forest Park Drive when she hit the curve too fast in January 2018.
The bus went off the road, rolled over, and ejected Arlana Haynes. She died hours later at a Macon hospital.
In August 2018, prosecutors dropped charges against Harris due to a scheduling problem and canceled her trial. She was then re-indicted in fall 2018.
David Dozier, the attorney who represents Arlana's mother Angelica Rose, said in Jan. 2019 that a civil suit was filed against the school board and that the two parties had reached a tentative settlement pending some final legal maneuvering.
He wouldn't release the amount of the settlement but said although the suit had been tentatively resolved, not all of the parents' concerns had been fully addressed.
Harris was tried in December 2019 before being convicted of vehicular homicide and reckless driving. She was acquitted of speeding and second-degree vehicular homicide
Harris was sentenced to 10 years, with 3 to be served in prison.
As a first-time offender, Harris' record will be cleared once she completes her prison sentence and probation.
Reporter Sabrina Burse will have more on this story on 13WMAZ News at 11.
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