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Case Summaries

Negligent Truck Crash: School Bus Collision Injures Minor

Zapata County, Texas: On October 2, 2014, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, driven by Luis Raul Barrales-Avalos, collided with a school bus, owned by Zapata Independent School District and driven by Rafaela Salinas-Diaz. Ms. Salinas-Diaz had begun to slow the bus, with warning lights flashing, as she approached the home of Juv Caleb Aldape, the last student on the bus. Mr. Avalos slammed his truck into the back of the school bus.

Wigington Rumley Dunn & Blair LLP filed suit contending that Mr. Avalos was negligent by failing to use ordinary care by various acts and omissions, each of which singularly or in combination with others, caused the accident. Mr. Avalos was driving for South Bay Transportation, Inc., which is vicariously responsible for Avalos’ negligence, negligence, and directly responsible for its own negligence, negligent entrustment and negligence per se. Finally, Zapata Independent School District was negligent and was also a proximate cause of the occurrence.

“18 Wheelers do not get to run into the back of school buses—not as long as we live here,” says Trace Blair, a partner of Wigington Rumley Dunn & Blair LLP, and counsel for the plaintiffs. This case settled for a confidential sum.