Trial date set for 1 of 3 wrongful death lawsuits connected to deadly Ohio bus crash

A fiery crash in Licking County last year that included a charter bus carrying dozens of high school students is the subject of wrongful death lawsuits.

6 people, including three Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools students, died and 18 others were hurt in the Nov. 14, 2023 crash.

>> PHOTOS: At least 6 killed, over a dozen injured in fiery I-70 crash in Ohio

The families of those who died filed separate wrongful death lawsuits, according to our News Partners at WBNS in Columbus . Two of the lawsuits are in Franklin County and one is in Licking County.

Last week, the trial date for a lawsuit filed by the Estate of Shannon Wigfield was set for April 2025, according to Franklin County Common Pleas Court records.

Wigfiled, 46, was a passenger in the Nissan and died in the crash. She spent 24 years as an English teacher at Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 3 students, 3 others dead after crash involving bus, 4 other vehicles in Ohio

The lawsuit filed by her estate goes after the driver of the semi, as well as its maker and the company that sold it.

It alleges that the semi would have automatically stopped before hitting the SUV regardless of the driver’s level of attentiveness if it had been “designed and manufactured with the Detroit Assurance Safety System that are standard equipment.”

Wigfield’s estate is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $25,000.

>> RELATED: Fiery bus crash that killed 6 on I-70 result of semitrailer failing to slow down, report says

As News Center 7 previously reported, a semi-truck driver failed to slow down and crashed into a Nissan SUV and a Pioneer Trails bus carrying students and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools on Interstate 70 in Licking County.

After being hit, the bus then hit the back of the Toyota and the Toyota hit the Volvo semi. The Toyota then traveled into the left lane, causing the bus to hit the Volvo semi.