Dallas Jury Finds Greyhound Liable for Passenger Run Over at Oregon Rest Stop, Awards Parents $18 Million
After trial: The $20 million award was reduced to $18 million after the jury assigned 10 percent of the fault to Hunter Brown. We found no report of an appeal, reversal or post-trial settlement, and could not confirm whether the judgment was paid.
Won by Aldous Law.
A Dallas County jury voted 10-2 in December 2019 that Greyhound Lines was responsible for the 2017 death of 25-year-old Hunter Brown, who was run over by a Greyhound bus at an Oregon rest stop after the driver left early without a head count. The jury awarded his parents $20 million in compensatory damages. It assigned 10 percent of the fault to Brown, so the parents' recovery was $18 million.
What happened
Late on the night of June 29, 2017, Hunter Brown, a 25-year-old from Seattle, was riding a Greyhound bus toward California. The bus made a scheduled stop at a travel center in Central Point, near Medford, Oregon, and passengers were allowed off to use the restroom and buy food. Brown got off with the others.
Greyhound had announced a departure time for the stop. According to the evidence at trial, the driver, Arthur Coley, pulled out before that time and did not take the head count that company policy required before leaving a rest stop. Witnesses saw Brown running after the bus, trying to get the driver's attention so he could board. As the bus turned, it knocked him off balance and the front tire ran over him. He was killed.
His parents, Dr. Barry Brown and Paula Becker, sued Greyhound Lines in Dallas County, where the company is based. The case was tried in December 2019 before a Dallas County district court jury. Charla Aldous represented the family. The evidence showed the driver had broken Greyhound's own head-count rule, and that he faced no discipline until after the lawsuit was filed. He was later fired over an unrelated incident involving a passenger's cellphone.
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Aldous called the death 'a horrible, entirely preventable tragedy.' The family said they hoped Greyhound would change its policies so that another family would not go through the same loss.
At trial, an industry expert testified that a simple head count could have prevented the death.
The jury voted 10-2 that Greyhound was responsible and awarded the parents $20 million in compensatory damages. It also assigned 10 percent of the fault to Brown, which cut the award by $2 million. The parents were left with $18 million.
Greyhound declined to comment on the verdict when NBC DFW asked, and CBS Texas and FOX 4 carried no statement from the company. We found no report of an appeal, a reversal or a post-trial settlement.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.NBC DFW, 'Family Awarded $20M in Wrongful Death Suit Against Greyhound', Dec. 2019·Archived copy
- 2.CBS Texas, 'Dallas Jury Awards $20 Million To Parents Of Man Who Was Run Over, Killed By Greyhound Bus', Dec. 12, 2019·Archived copy
- 3.FOX 4 News, 'Family of man killed by Greyhound bus wins $20 million lawsuit', Dec. 12, 2019·Archived copy
- 4.KIRO 7, 'Parents of Seattle man killed in Greyhound bus accident awarded $18M by jury', Dec. 2019·Archived copy
- 5.KIRO 7, 'Parents of Seattle man killed by Greyhound bus file lawsuit', Dec. 2017·Archived copy
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