PITTSBURGH — A lawsuit filed in Philadelphia claims that a FedEx truck driver’s noise canceling headphones contributed to the deadly crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that involved a tour bus, UPS truck and other vehicles.
According to our partners at TribLive.com, the lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas court and names Z&D Tours Inc. and FedEx Ground Package System Inc. as defendants.
>>>READ MORE: 5 people killed, about 60 hospitalized following ‘devastating’ crash on PA Turnpike
It alleges truck driver Brandon Stowers was wearing headphones when he hit the tour bus that had rolled onto its side after hitting the center divider and driving up an embankment. If Stowers was not wearing them, the suit said he would have heard the truck’s built-in alarm warning system telling him there was an object in the road ahead of him.
The attorney who filed the 91-page lawsuit, Edward Ciarimboli, is a Greensburg native.
“We have dashcam video of Stowers wearing the headphones,” he told TribLive.com. “FedEx was previously sued in Aug. 2017 for another driver utilizing a noise-cancelling headset while operating its tractor-trailer causing catastrophic injuries.”
The suit also alleges the driver of the tour bus, Shuang Oing Feng, was also negligent. He was among five people who died in the crash.
Five people were killed and about 60 others were injured in a crash involving three tractor trailers, a tour bus and a car on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Mt. Pleasant last January. The massive, deadly crash closed the turnpike in both directions between Exit 75 (New Stanton) and Exit 161 (Breezewood). According to state police, a passenger tour bus was headed to Cincinnati from New Jersey.
The bus was going down a hill on a curve when it hit an embankment, rolled over and was struck by two tractor-trailers traveling behind it. A third tractor-trailer and car then collided with the cluster of vehicles, causing dozens of injuries and several deaths.