Bus, CA, September 16 – A Los Angeles Metro bus and an SUV collided at the intersection of West Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue, leaving three people dead and five others hospitalized, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The crash happened just after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15, when the SUV struck the side of the eastbound bus, sending both vehicles onto the curb. Two bus passengers were pronounced dead at the scene, and a third victim died later at the hospital.
Chatsworth crash between Metro bus and SUV leaves three dead, five hospitalized
The Metro bus was traveling eastbound as Line 166, and the SUV, believed to be a Ford, was traveling southbound, according to Los Angeles Metro. A significant portion of the SUV’s front end became lodged in the side of the bus after the impact, and both vehicles ended up on the curb. Firefighters used extrication tools to free at least one patient who was trapped, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Two bus passengers were pronounced dead at the scene, and one of them was ejected during the crash, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Six people were taken to a hospital for treatment. One of them later died from their injuries, bringing the total number of deaths to three. That person is believed to have been the driver of the SUV, authorities said.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene along with other emergency crews. The conditions of the hospitalized patients who survived have not been released, and their identities have not been made public. Investigators have not said what led to the collision, and no additional details about the cause of the crash have been released.
Why evidence in a commercial vehicle case has a deadline of its own
A collision involving a commercial vehicle is not simply a larger car accident. The carrier holds records the other driver never has: electronic logging data, maintenance and inspection history, dispatch instructions and driver qualification files.
Those records are the best evidence of what happened and they do not last indefinitely. Retention periods are measured in months for some categories, so the window to preserve them can close long before the deadline to file a lawsuit does. A preservation demand sent early is the step that keeps them available.
The deadline that applies to a claim like this one
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives two years for an action for injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The same two years covers an injury claim and a death claim; there is no separate, shorter period because someone died.
Who is entitled to bring a claim when someone is killed
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 decides who may bring a wrongful death action. The first group is the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and the issue of deceased children, or, where there is no surviving issue, whoever would take the estate by intestate succession.
A second group may bring the action only if they were financially dependent on the person who died: a putative spouse and their children, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the person who died where the parents are deceased. Parents are in that second group, which is the part families are most often surprised by, because dependency has to be shown rather than assumed.
If a public agency may be involved, the deadline is much shorter
Where a city, county, transit agency, school district or state agency is a potential defendant, Government Code section 911.2 requires a written claim to be presented to that entity within six months. The six months runs from when the claim accrues, and the claim is presented to the entity itself: a school district and a city are separate public entities with separate processes.
Two things follow that are easy to get wrong. The six months is the deadline to present the claim, not the deadline to sue, and it attaches to the public entity as a defendant rather than to the location of the crash, so a case with both a private and a public defendant is not entirely governed by it. Once the entity mails a written rejection, Government Code section 945.6 allows six months to file suit, which is shorter than the window that just closed. If no written rejection is ever sent, that period is two years from accrual.
Missing the six months is not automatically the end of it. Government Code section 911.6(b) requires the board to grant a late claim application on any of six grounds, including where the person was a minor, or was physically or mentally incapacitated, for the whole of the six months or for any part of it.
Talking to someone about it
Culver Legal represents people injured in collisions across California. A conversation about what happened costs nothing, and we work on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we win. If we do not win, we do not pass the case costs on to you either.
Nothing on this page is legal advice about any particular case, and the facts of a reported collision often change as the investigation continues.
