Parent sues over Channelview bus crash

Mom files suit against transit company, estate of driver who died returning kids from Florida

A mother has sued a charter bus company for the crash that killed a bus driver and injured dozens of Channelview ISD band students, including her son, returning home from Disney World.

Bus company First Class Tours, along with a representative of the bus driver’s estate, are being sued for $1 million, according to the lawsuit filed with the Harris County Civil Court.

On March 13, a bus carrying 46 Channelview High School students and adults plunged 50 feet down a ravine in Baldwin County, Ala. Bus driver Harry Caligone died, and dozens of students were injured.

“Defendants betrayed the trust bestowed upon them by over 40 teenage children and members of the Channelview High School Band onboard the charter bus,” the lawsuit states.

First Class Tours could not be reached for comment.

The mother said her child had a severe head scalping injury and has post-traumatic stress disorder, the lawsuit alleges.

Caligone died from blunt force trauma, according to a preliminary autopsy report. That finding does not rule out any underlying medical emergencies the driver may have experienced just before the crash, said Stan Vinson, Baldwin County coroner. The full autopsy report has not yet been released.

First Class Tours runs 58 buses and motor coaches and employs 94 drivers, according to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Federal inspectors have inspected the company 276 times in past years, issuing a total of 20 violations.

FMCSA records show federal inspectors cited the company twice for unsafe driving violations. In Louisiana, a driver failed to wear their seat belt, and in Texas another drove 11 to 14 mph above the speed limit.

Data from the agency show company drivers have crashed four other times — with one fatality — in the last two years.

In that instance, a bus struck and killed a 73-year-old woman in downtown Houston as she made her way across the crosswalk. The driver, who was not the driver in the March 13 crash, failed to yield right of way, according to the crash report. No other causes were cited in the report.