Two 13-year-old boys who were participating in an overseas trip were killed when the bus they were riding in overturned. The trip was organized by the North Carolina Youth Soccer Association. The boys were on a bus on a wet highway northeast of Paris, France. When the bus overturned, the two boys died as a result.
Julian Brown, one of the boys, was survived by his parents and one sibling. Matthew Helms was survived by his parents and two siblings.
The Brown family and Helms’s mother sued the North Carolina Youth Soccer Association alleging in its lawsuit that the association was negligent in selecting the bus company without knowing about its safety record. The families also claimed that the association was negligent for choosing a company that provided an inexperienced driver and that the bus used to transport the boys was not equipped with seatbelts.
Although the incident took place in France, the lawsuit was filed against the association in the state court in North Carolina. The jury returned a verdict of $8,300,000 in total. The attorneys for the families were William Bystrynski and David F. Kirby.
Brown v. N.C. Youth Soccer Assn., No. 05CVS1922 (N.C., Onslow Co. Super. Apr. 6, 2013).
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling wrongful death cases, bus accidents, train accident cases and construction site injury cases for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of another for more than 37 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Chicago (Bridgeport, Canaryville, Washington Park, Englewood, Lake Calumet, Riverdale, Beverly, Archer Heights, Portage Park), Oak Park, River Grove, Elmwood Park, Franklin Park, Melrose Park, Schiller Park, Bedford Park, Palos Park, LaGrange Park, Park Ridge and Oak Park, Ill.
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