Passenger on bus that crashed on school trip sues

Monday, May 3, 1999 | 2:32 a.m.

A survivor of the March 30 crash of a bus that was bringing 35 Clark County fifth-graders home from a spring break trip to San Diego filed a lawsuit Friday in District Court against the company that hired the 80-year-old driver.

The driver, Charlie Burger, died from injuries sustained in the crash along Interstate 15. There were no other fatalities.

Catherine Lambert, a custodian at David Cox Elementary School and a chaperone on the fifth-grade class trip, was injured when the Coach USA chartered bus struck the back of a tractor-trailer.

The bus carrying the children and nine adults and the tractor-trailer transporting strawberries skidded down a 35-foot embankment. Rescue workers on the scene said it was a miracle that neither vehicle overturned. If they had, fatalities would likely have been great, workers said.

Named in the lawsuit were K-T Contract Services Inc., which operates Coach USA Las Vegas, K-T Contract Services of Southern Nevada, K-T Tours & Convention Services and Texas-based Kerrville Bus Co. Inc.

"Mr. Burger was fully qualified to drive the bus," Jack Williamson, counsel for K-T Contract Services, said today. "Mr. Burger had been requested by different groups to drive. His driving record was solid."

Williamson said Burger was with the company for more than 10 years and had driven buses for 40 years. He said Burger had met all the requirements of the Department of Transportation, and that it is illegal to discriminate because of age.

Burger had a valid commercial driver's license and passed his most recent physical in 1998, a Coach spokeswoman said after the accident.

He had been honored for 32 years of safe driving by the New Jersey Transit Authority before he was hired by Coach USA. At Coach, he had eight years of safe driving.

Lambert's lawsuit seeks more than $10,000 each for general damages, special damages and punitive damages. Lambert accuses the bus company of negligence and gross negligence and willful and wanton conduct. The lawsuit specifically questions the company's judgment in hiring an 80-year-old driver.

Williamson said this morning he hadn't seen the lawsuit. He is awaiting the final accident report from the California Highway Patrol.

Attempts to reach the California Highway Patrol for comment were unsuccessful.

The Highway Patrol said last month that it would take two to three months to complete its investigation.