PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

An insurance company has filed court papers seeking reimbursement for a claim it had to

pay out to a tour bus company stemming from an accident during which one of the company’s vehicle’s was damaged by a highway obstruction.

In a complaint filed June 19 at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by attorney Robert D. MacMahon, of the Philadelphia firm Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby, Lancer Insurance Co. claims it had to pay out $52,302.05 after a bus belonging to DB Fisher Charter Bus Co. struck a “hanging rock” on the side of the northbound lane of South Gulph Road in Montgomery County.

The accident occurred on Oct. 14, 2010.

The complaint, which names as defendants the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and the Friends of Valley Forge Park, alleges that there would have been no way for the bus to get around the hanging rock, which juts out “prominently and dangerously over the highway,” without having had to veer into the opposing lanes of traffic.

The lawsuit states that multiple windows on the DB Fisher Bus were shattered as a result of the collision.

The lawsuit accuses all three defendants of negligence for failing to have the hanging rock removed from the roadway or altered so as not to block the highway, failing to warn drivers of the existence of the dangerous road condition, and being otherwise careless and negligent.

The insurance company seeks the return of the $52,302.05 it had to pay out to settle the accident claim. It also seeks interest, attorney’s fees, litigation costs and other court relief.

 

The case ID number is 120602345.