The widow of an educational counselor who was among 10 people killed in the collision of a charter bus headed for Humboldt State University and a FedEx truck filed a negligence suit Thursday against the delivery giant and the bus company.
Krystle Arzola, widow of Arthur Arzola Jr., sued FedEx Corp. and Silverado Stages Inc., the operator of the bus, in Los Angeles Superior Court. She additionally names the estate of Fedex driver Timothy Paul Evans. She seeks unspecified damages.
The suit alleges the FedEx driver drove negligently and that the charter bus did not have sufficient emergency exit procedures in place.
The 26-year-old Arzola was a chaperon accompanying dozens of Los Angeles- area students traveling in the charter bus to Humboldt State for a campus tour. The ardent Dodgers fan was an admissions counselor at Humboldt State and was working toward his master’s degree at the University of La Verne. He planned to become a school counselor.
The bus was being driven north on the Golden State (5) Freeway in Glenn County on April 10 when it was struck head on by a southbound FedEx truck that veered off the freeway, across a wide median and into oncoming traffic in Orland.
Five students and five adults died in the wreck and ensuing fire. Numerous other lawsuits stemming from the accident have been previously filed.
FedEx previously issued a statement extending condolences to the victims and their families and saying the company was “focused on providing support to those affected and cooperating with the authorities as they conduct their investigation.”
— City News Service