A piece of heavy equipment strains to move a bus which plummeted down an embankment in rural eastern Oregon on Dec. 30, 2012, killing nine.Randy L. Rasmussen/The Canadian Press
Two Korean exchange students who survived a bus crash that killed nine people in Oregon have filed a lawsuit against a Vancouver tour bus company, alleging its exhausted driver was speeding in hazardous conditions and failed to heed warnings.
The U.S. lawsuit, filed by Jong-Hyun Chae and Seong-June An, claims the Mi Joo Tour and Travel bus driver violated American federal laws by working 90 to 100 hours during the first eight days of the trip from Las Vegas to British Columbia.
The lawsuit claims the driver was fatigued, ignored warnings of poor conditions, and didn't slow down when he encountered snowy conditions.
A trial date has been set for Jan. 6, 2014, in connection with the Dec. 30 crash after the bus careened down an embankment along Interstate 84 east of Pendleton, Ore.
The lawsuit claims the 15- and 16-year-old boys fainted after the bus flipped end over end, and awoke to a nightmarish scene of dead passengers and others who had been wounded and were screaming all around them.
The 54-year-old bus driver, a deacon at a Methodist church in Surrey, B.C., was among the 38 people injured in the crash.