The Supreme Court of Texas ruled this month that McClennan County jurors correctly blamed Motor Coach Industries Mexico for a 2003 crash that killed five on Interstate 35.

Jurors found that seat belts on a Central Texas Trails bus could have kept passengers inside and that laminated glass would have prevented fatal injuries. Federal regulations don’t require seat belts or lamination on motor coaches, but all nine Justices agreed that jurors followed common law without intruding on federal law.

Justice Eva Guzman wrote that the verdict “does not present any obstacle to the accomplishment of the federal regulatory scheme’s purpose.”

In 2003, friends chartered a Central Texas Trails bus to take them from Temple to Dallas for a concert. Near Waco, in rain and fog, the driver crested a hill and saw red lights. Traffic had stopped due to an accident. The driver of the bus attempted to change lanes to increase his stopping distance, but another car cut him off, so he steered into the earthen median and lost control of the bus. It crossed the median into southbound traffic and collided with a large sport utility vehicle, spun counter clockwise, and tipped over on its right side. The bus slid across the southbound lanes and came to rest in the ditch on the far side of the road.

Five died and others suffered injuries. The jury awarded a total of $17 million in damages.

In the opinion, Justice Eva Guzman wrote, “Given that no federal safety standard even discusses passenger seat belts in motor coaches, MCI’s preemption claim is predicated on regulatory silence. Regulatory silence will not preempt a state law absent a clear and manifest statement of intent to forbid all regulation in that area.”

She wrote that “an agency’s mere decision to leave an area unregulated is not enough to preempt state law.”

Source: Southeast Texas Record, Steve Korris