The father of a disabled Tucson woman killed by a school bus after the driver blacked out is suing a local school district for negligence, claiming the bus wasn’t roadworthy and the driver wasn’t fit to be behind the wheel.
The Tanque Verde Unified School District kept the bus in service for months with a leaky exhaust system and no air conditioning, causing heat and fumes to build up inside the vehicle before the accident, the legal complaint says.
Kimberly Ebersbacher, 43, was riding a motorized wheelchair on a sidewalk near East Speedway and North Kolb Road when the bus veered off the road and struck her on Sept. 27, 2017.
The lawsuit says the bus driver already was under treatment for a medical condition, which was aggravated by the heat and fumes when he lost consciousness and struck the woman.
Ebersbacher was “crushed, dragged and pulverized” in the moments before her death and her wheelchair was destroyed, the complaint says.
The victim’s father, Lynn Ebersbacher, filed the wrongful-death suit March 19. He suffered “a substantial loss of enjoyment of his life as a result of her horrific death,” the suit says.
District officials would not comment on the lawsuit or answer questions about the overall safety of its bus fleet.
“On the advice of counsel, the district is unable to comment on matters that are in litigation,” said an email from Claire Place, community liaison for the school district.
The suit faults the district’s bus inspection and maintenance practices.
It claims inspections are cursory and don’t cover all legally required items and says unsafe school buses are often kept in service for months without necessary repairs.
The lawsuit says the bus involved in the crash received a 10-minute inspection and was cleared for service a few days before the incident.
But post-crash inspections by investigators showed the bus had “major defects,” the suit says.
Alleged problems included nonfunctioningl air conditioning, an exhaust-system leak, defective electrical wiring in its fuse box, a defective rear door and “substantial buildup of exhaust residue” inside the vehicle.
The plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages and has requested a jury trial. The suit also names the bus driver and the state of Arizona as defendants.
