The attorneys to the parents of Cameron Chana, a former Eastern student, filed a lawsuit under the Wrongful Death Act against Lincoln Springs Resort and other entities seeking damages for a May 30 double-decker bus accident, according to court records.

The complaint was filed in Coles County after Chana and Justin Sleezer, a Yorkville resident, were killed while riding a tour bus, operated by Lincoln Springs in Charleston, that took a group of people, including Eastern students, to Lake Shelbyville.

Chana and Sleezer suffered fatal head injuries when they stood up on the second level of the double-decker bus as it passed under the Interstate 57 overpass bridge along Illinois Route 16. The two individuals were immediately sent to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana and pronounced dead on May 31.

Attorneys Robert Bingle and William Gibbs, of Corboy and Demetrio, P.C., filed the complaint Friday on behalf of Chana’s parents.

The complaint alleges Lincoln Springs, Graywood Foundation-Enterprises, which owns Lincoln Springs and insured the bus, Augustine Oruwari, owner of Graywood Enterprises, and John Protz, the employee who operated the bus, were negligent in a variety of ways.

The complaint alleges Protz failed to provide verbal warnings to passengers riding on the second level of the bus and failed to monitor the conduct of passengers on the second level.

The complaint also alleges bus drivers, including Protz, of the double-decker bus were not given proper and sufficient training. It also alleges that bus drivers were not adequately informed of bus routes and potential hazards of routes.

According to court records, the attorneys have requested a trial by jury to settle the lawsuit. Lincoln Springs and the other entities have not filed a response, but court summons have been issued, according to the records.

Bingle and Gibbs could not be reached for comment. Oruwari and a spokesperson for Lincoln Springs also could not be reached for comment.

Chana graduated from Eastern in the spring and was planning to start graduate school at the university in the fall. Chana and Sleezer attended a private outing at Lake Shelbyville prior to the accident.

The Mattoon Police Department and the Champaign County coroner investigated the accident.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.

Wrongful Death Act

Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, or neglect and the act, neglect or is such as would, if death had not ensued, have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof.