The University of Utah has settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of seven Chinese scholars that were killed in a fatal 2003 van rollover accident.
State officials agreed to pay the plaintiffs, who include three men personally injured in the van crash, about $500,000. The University’s offer came on August 6, 2009 after widows testified on behalf of the victims of the wrongful deaths.
A driver lost control of a 15-passenger Chevy van like this one leading to the wrongful deaths of 10 people.
As wrongful death lawyers, we believe that if a wrongful death is caused by another party, the party responsible for causing the wrongful death should be held liable in a wrongful death lawsuit so the family can seek some type of justice. Thousands of wrongful deaths are caused every year by car accidents similar to the one that happened to these Chinese students from the University of Utah. Even if an auto accident does not cause wrongful death, severe personal injury like whiplash or spinal cord injuries that cause paralysis (i.e. paraplegia & quadriplegia) are possible.
The University of Utah hosted the delegation of Chinese students in 2002, and the school was responsible for handling travel within the United States. The wrongful death attorneys said that the school was negligent when they hired an unlicensed travel business in New York that hired a person that was unqualified to drive an oversized van.
According to court records, a doctoral student associated with the institute contracted a man named Zhou Zhou to handle the group of 12 students’ ground transportation in the East. Zhou hired driver Yi Chen to drive the 15-passenger Chevy van even though he lacked skills.
At the time of the rollover accident on April 7, 2003, the group was going to Washington D.C. from Buffalo, NY when the van slid off Highway 15 near Williamsport, Pa.
As wrongful death lawyers, we believe the student arranging the travel for fellow students of the University of Utah acted irresponsibly. If you are given the task of providing transportation for others, you should make sure the people you hire have the right training to operate vehicles before car accidents happen causing injury or wrongful death.
Please feel free to call us now at 1-800-655-6585 or you can click here for a free consultation with an experienced wrongful death attorney. We have a large bilingual staff that can assist you in either English or Spanish. No fee if no recovery.
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Tags: University of Utah, van accident, wrongful death lawsuit
