In a jury trial in a wrongful death and product liability lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that the bus manufactured by Motor Coach Industries caused the death of Kayvan Khiabani, a Las Vegas surgeon who was riding his bicycle alongside a tour bus manufactured by Motor Coach Industries. On March 23, 2018, a Nevada jury awarded $18.7 million to the teenage children of Dr. Khiabani, decedent, alleging that the lack of proximity sensors, faulty design, and failure to provide adequate warnings about the dangers of riding near the tour bus caused Mr. Khiabani’s death.
In 2017, Dr. Khiabani was cycling alongside a 2008-model Motor Coach Industries tour bus before being drawn underneath it and crushed. This case was the first of its kind alleging that the bus’s faulty aerodynamic design created a sucking force equivalent to 20 pounds near the right front portion of the vehicle. During trial it was shown that other buses use safer streamlined designs that exert no sucking force, and that Motor Coach Industries should have known that their design posed a risk to bicyclists like Dr. Khiabani.
The family of Dr. Khiabani hopes that the verdict stimulates the manufacturers of large buses and trucks to design safer vehicles that are not aerodynamically dangerous. Plaintiffs stated that because there are hundreds of thousands of buses and large trucks on the road today that also have bad aerodynamic design, millions of unwary bicyclists are put in danger by the faulty design and other like lawsuits are inevitable.
If you or someone you know has been injured due to a bus or motor coach, contact an experienced attorney at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or toll free at 713-222-7211.