Preparations were underway Tuesday for a lawsuit against the Riverside Transit Agency over the death of a 28-year-old man who was fatally injured while apparently attempting to board an RTA bus as it pulled away from a stop at a Riverside intersection.
“Bus operators handle thousands of passengers a day. With that responsibility comes a duty to operate those buses safely and mindful of pedestrians trying to get on board,” plaintiffs attorney Carl Douglas told City News Service Tuesday. “Drivers understand human behavior. They’re trained professionals and should anticipate the behavior of potential passengers. We think the driver in this instance failed in that regard.”
Douglas is representing the family of Chibeza Dudley Nyirenda, who died in November after he suffered “crush damage that caused his death” while attempting to board an RTA bus at the intersection of MLK Boulevard and Chicago Avenue, blocks away from the UC Riverside campus, the attorney said.
The family has filed a wrongful death claim notifying RTA of intent to sue in Riverside County Superior Court. The claim is valued at $28.58 million. RTA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nyirenda, an unemployed security guard with familial ties to Zambia, was trying to catch a bus not far from his Riverside home and was speaking to his mother, Marjorie Bradford-Nyirenda, via mobile phone at the bus stop when the commuter bus for which he was waiting began to pull away about 4 p.m. on Nov. 12.
“He said, `Hey, this bus is trying to leave me. Mom, I love you,”’ Douglas said. “Then the phone went silent … because of tragedy.”
Nyirenda was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died less than 24 hours later, according to the plaintiffs.
Douglas said he has confirmed there were 16 people aboard the bus, plus the driver, at the time of the fatal impact. The attorney acknowledged that the Riverside Police Department had filed a report on what happened, though he indicated the details contained in it are insufficient.
“I want to conduct my own investigation,” Douglas said. “We’re certain that he died from blunt force trauma because the bus ran over him.”
Specifics concerning Nyirenda’s position in relationship to the bus and whether he may have been attempting to force it to stop by placing himself in its path haven’t been verified by the plaintiffs.
According to Douglas, Nyirenda had not given any signs of “self-destructive behavior” that day, but was rather going through his daily “routine.”
“He had been in constant, ordinary communication with his mother,” the attorney said.
Nyirenda resided with his mom and two of his sisters. He was the youngest of four siblings.
Douglas said he’s anticipating a defense strategy that may endeavor to “diminish the value of (his) life.”
“In cases such as these … (the defendants) will sometimes attack the memory of the person who died,” Douglas told CNS. “They will try to change the narrative and minimize the stature of the person killed.”
With the filing of the plaintiffs’ wrongful death claim, RTA will now have 45 days to respond with an out-of-court settlement offer. If nothing if forthcoming, the civil action will proceed, possibly taking up to six months before a complaint is formally submitted to the court, Douglas said.