Parents of man killed by bus in Oregon awarded $18M

PORTLAND  — A jury in Dallas, Texas, has awarded $20 million in damages following the death of a man who was killed by a Greyhound bus as he ran to catch it at a Southern Oregon rest stop.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the jury found Greyhound Lines, based in Dallas, responsible for Hunter Brown’s death. They awarded his parents, Paula Becker and Dr. Barry Brown, $18 million in compensatory damages, finding that Greyhound’s negligence caused their son’s death.

The jury assigned 90 percent of the responsibility for the crash to Greyhound and 10 percent to Hunter Brown, meaning Greyhound will keep $2 million in damages.

The parents’ lawyer Jane Paulson said they hoped the lawsuit would get Greyhound to change its policies.

Brown, 25, was riding a Greyhound bound for San Francisco on June 29, 2017. The Seattle resident got off the bus at a truck stop around 1 a.m., and the driver, Arthur Coley, told passengers they would depart at 1:30 a.m.

At some point before 1:30 a.m., Coley honked the horn and started driving away. Brown ran up, banged on the door and begged Coley to let him on. Coley looked at him and continued turning the bus toward him, the suit said. The bus ran him over.

Paulson said the company did not fire or discipline Coley and that he was eventually fired for an unrelated encounter with a passenger.