Lawsuit filed in Warsaw crash involving St. Ignatius hockey team

CHICAGO, Ill. (WPTA) - Several of the victims in a crash involving a semi-truck and a school bus that left 16 students injured on Nov. 12 in Warsaw have now filed a lawsuit in the case.

Police say the semi-truck driver, 58-year-old Victor Santos of Brooklyn, New York, is facing 26 felony charges as court documents say he was impaired at the time of the crash.

COURT DOCS: Witnesses say semi-truck driver ran red light, striking school bus in Warsaw

16 members of the St. Ignatius College Prep junior varsity hockey team were hurt in the incident, three critically. A total of 23 students and two adult coaches from the team were on board at the time, in addition to the bus driver. The team was on their way back to their hotel following a tournament.

Tuesday morning, Chicago-based Cavanagh Law Group announced that a lawsuit has been filed against Santos and various trucking companies in the crash. According to ABC7, the complaint accuses the defendants of negligence and willful and wanton disregard for the safety of the players and coaches on the bus.

“Those companies would have had a responsibility, based on federal law and the federal motor carrier safety regulations, to place a safe truck driver in the truck, they didn’t, we want to know why, because this man was a criminal with a criminal record,” the law group said.

21Alive has reached out to the trucking companies listed in the lawsuit but have not yet heard back.

You can read the full lawsuit below.

Court documents say two different drivers saw Santos driving erratically before the collision with the school bus, with one witness saying they called to report him as a reckless driver. Witnesses say Santos approached a red light at the intersection of US 30 and Center Street in Warsaw when he braked momentarily, but then ran the red light and struck the school bus that had the right-of-way.

Court documents also note that Santos is a registered sex offender in New York, having been convicted of rape around 1999.