Injured Tour Guide Sues for Injuries in Runaway Bus Case

For Immediate Release

An injured tour guide who was a passenger in a runaway bus which collided with a concrete barrier last January has filed suit in Broward County Circuit Court (Case No: 08061968) for injuries sustained in that crash.

The Plaintiff, Ingrid Kerbler, was a tour guide hired to familiarize tourists (from a cruise aboard Holland America's MS Maasdam) with South Florida sights on the way to a day tour of the Everglades. En route to the Everglades, a Mustang driven by Omar Abu-Jabir hit the bus, according to the police report. The tour bus, owned by Salud Services, Inc., doing business as Endeavour Bus Line, was driven by employee Gustavo Ordunez. The lawsuit alleges that the bus driver, Ordunez, lost control of the bus when he fell out of the driver's seat due to his failure to wear a seatbelt.

The out of control bus traveled across the median and through oncoming eastbound traffic before it collided with a concrete barrier. Traffic was shut down for more than an hour in both directions of the busy Interstate highway after the accident. Luckily for the passengers, the bus accident occurred just weeks after Davie Fire Rescue members participated in "mass-casualty training." The Plaintiff was removed from the bus by the jaws of life and was one of thirty two people who were transported to the hospital with serious injuries.

"Just like all drivers in automobiles are required to wear seatbelts, drivers of commercial buses, charged with the care and safekeeping of their passengers should exercise reasonable care for their own safety and that of their passengers, by wearing their seatbelts and being alert to hazards that may arise in the roadway," said South Florida Attorney Diana Santa Maria, Founding Partner of Diana Santa Maria, P.A, law firm in Davie. "Ordunez' failure to wear his seatbelt led to his losing control of the bus he was operating, causing it to crash into a concrete barrier which resulted in multiple injuries to our clients and many other passengers on that bus," said Santa Maria, who represents the Plaintiff in this action as well as other injured passengers on the bus.

For more information about the Law Offices of Diana Santa Maria please visit The Law Offices of Diana Santa Maria, P.A..