King County Transit Agency Held Liable for Truck Driver’s Death

By Andrew Weatherford

Published on March 31, 2009

King County officials have agreed to pay $1.5 million to family members of an Auburn man who was killed in an April 2008 accident with a Metro bus.

Michael Dahlquist, 21, was driving his pick-up truck on Highway 164 when he was struck by the bus. A police investigation showed that the bus driver may have been speeding when she hit Mr. Dahlquist's truck.

The victim's family filed a personal injury lawsuit against the King County Transit Agency. In their suit, they claimed that the bus driver should not have been allowed to drive and that the Transit Agency was negligent for allowing her to do so. Court documents filed by the defendant's lawyer alleged that the bus driver had a history of accidents. The bus driver was fired as a result of this accident.

The news that King County officials had agreed to settle the wrongful death claim was first reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

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