New York City is the largest hub for these Chinese-run charter buses. The immigrant transportation industry started as an alternative and more affordable means to shuttle Chinese workers to Chinese restaurants in different locations. As the Chinese bus routes expanded rapidly along the East coast and Midwest over the years, commuters including students, artists, budget travelers and immigrants nationwide also caught the cheap fare trend. Currently the Chinese buses travel from New York City to Albany, Boston, Chicago, Providence, Michigan, Washington, D.C. and even as far as Florida for as little as $12 to $20 one way.
Li Xueqin, a waitress at a Chinese restaurant in Ohio, didn’t think such a bus ride would leave her lying on a rain-washed highway at 3:30 am on May 20. With a broken arm, the pregnant woman struggled to crawl to safety after the charter bus she boarded swerved off Interstate 80 in rural Clearfield County, Pa. She escaped death, but saw another passenger, an injured man lying on the slippery road and unable to move, almost immediately run over by an oncoming vehicle.
One of the most serious traffic accidents of the so-called “Chinatown buses” to date, the bus crash killed two people and injured 32. The bus was carrying a full load of
Chinese restaurant workers and travelers from Ohio and Philadelphia to Manhattan's Chinatown. Sound asleep and wearing no seatbelts, the men and women were thrown out of the vehicle and their luggage was strewn over the highway.
With damage ranging from limb fractures to serious brain injuries, the commuters recently filed lawsuits in New York City and Philadelphia to seek compensation.
Representing 11 injured passengers and the two death cases, New York attorneys Allan Tai and David Sobiloff are suing Pennsylvania-registered OK Travel Bus Inc., bus driver Lin Chen and ticket seller Five Star Travel in lower Manhattan. The case was filed at the New York County Supreme Court, since Tai thought New York jurors would be more sympathetic to the plight of immigrant workers.
According to Tai, the Philadelphia police report says the accident was caused by driver fatigue and speeding. He said a truck driver at the scene testified that the New York-bound bus was traveling at 80 to 90 miles per hour. The left brake was found rusty, Tai added, and he plans to take Van Hool, the bus manufacturer, and ABC Companies, which rented the bus to OK Travel Bus to court.
Meanwhile, New York attorney John S. Yong, who represents eight passengers, filed a lawsuit at the Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania last Monday to seek compensation for their medical bills. Yong sued the OK Travel Bus Inc. and the bus driver, and he is investigating whether the company is liable for the non-provision of seat belts and faulty parts of the vehicle.
Yong filed the lawsuit in Pennsylvania and believes it benefits his clients since it was where the accident and investigative work took place, and Pennsylvania law has no pain and suffering limit. Three clients of his appeared at a press conference in Chinatown last week. One woman fractured her right shoulder and twisted her neck, one man broke his shoulder bones, and another man suffered severe headache and neck pain after waking up from a seven-hour coma at a hospital in Altoona, Pa. All of them had difficulty speaking, but they said since they had no health insurance, they were discharged from the hospital early. They hope the lawsuit will help pay for the medical care they will need in the near future.
