$1.45 Million Settlement After Bryce Canyon Tour Bus Rollover Killed Four
Won by Cutt Kendell & Olson.
Utah's Department of Transportation paid $1.45 million to resolve wrongful-death and injury claims brought by survivors and families of four Chinese tourists killed when a tour bus rolled over on a freshly resurfaced section of State Road 12 near Bryce Canyon in September 2019.
What happened
On September 20, 2019, a 36-passenger tour bus carrying 30 Chinese nationals was traveling State Road 12 near Bryce Canyon National Park when the driver drifted off the right edge of the roadway. His steering correction caused the bus to become unstable and roll over. Four passengers were killed, thirteen were fully or partially ejected from the vehicle, and dozens more were hospitalized with serious injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated and determined the probable cause was the driver's failure to maintain his lane and subsequent overcorrections. But the investigation also revealed a road-conditions factor: UDOT crews had finished resurfacing that stretch of State Road 12 just one day before the crash.
Cutt, Kendell & Olson, led by attorney Nathan Morris, filed suit against UDOT and the State of Utah, arguing the resurfacing project left the road in a dangerous condition. The complaint alleged the completed roadway lacked a rumble strip that would have alerted the driver before the bus crossed the lane boundary, and that an unpaved shoulder gave drivers little margin to recover once a vehicle began to drift. Families of the deceased and injured survivors who had separately resolved claims against the bus company and its driver pursued these road-defect claims through Utah's Wrongful Death Statute.
UDOT negotiated a settlement of $1.45 million, approved in Salt Lake City's Third District Court in 2024. The agency did not admit liability as part of the resolution. Morris, commenting after the settlement, noted that the litigation prompted UDOT to make safety changes on Utah highways that the firm believes will reduce future crashes.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.FOX 13 Now: UDOT settles lawsuit over Bryce Canyon tour bus crash that killed four, injured dozens·Archived copy
- 2.UPR Utah Public Radio: Chinese Nationals Sue UDOT, State Of Utah After 2019 Bus Crash That Killed Four·Archived copy
- 3.NTSB Investigation HWY19MH012: Bryce Canyon City, Utah motorcoach crash (September 20, 2019)·Archived copy
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