Family files lawsuit against Blue Bird

The Beasley Allen Law Firm, on behalf of the family of Arlana Haynes, has filed a lawsuit in the state court of Bibb County, Ga against Blue Bird Global Corporation. The suit claims that Blue Bird did not make the public aware of any 

dangers regarding its product. The 2000 model Blue Bird All American School Bus, citing its top-heavy design, made the bus roll to its right side, ejecting Haynes from the bus.

According to the press release, Blue Bird has been involved in lawsuits for years before Haynes’s death in January 2018 and has full knowledge that the model has an unstable design prone to rollovers and that the product was causing injury and death for passengers. Subsequently, the lawsuit claims the company also had knowledge that there was the possibility for students not wearing seatbelts to be thrown from the bus in the event of a rollover, as well as a chance that they could be rolled over by the vehicle as a result.

“We will never be able to change the outcome of this tragedy or ease the pain of such a loss for Arlana’s family, but we can hold the defendant accountable for its negligence,” said David Dozier, of Dozier Law Firm, who represents Haynes’ family alongside Kendall Dunson and Donovan Potter of Beasley Allen Law Firm, and Richard Sizemore of Clark, Smith & Sizemore Law Firm. Sizemore said, “Pursuing a claim like this allows us and our client to raise awareness, which we hope will lead to changes that prevent needless deaths like our client’s daughter.”

On January 29, 2018, Haynes was riding home from Parkwood Elementary in Warner Robins, when bus driver, Shalita Harris, turned on to Forest Hill Drive and lost control of the vehicle, which landed on its right side after hitting an embankment. Haynes was ejected from the bus and later succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. Haynes was the only child who didn’t survive the incident. Harris was found guilty in December of 2019 of homicide by vehicle and reckless driving, and was sentenced to three years in prison.