IUPUI student files lawsuit in Megabus crash

An IUPUI student who was involved in the Megabus crash that happened in the early morning hours of Oct. 14 has filed a lawsuit against the transportation service claiming he suffered "permanent personal injury," according to court documents.

Mashhour Hamad Alqahtani, a 25-year-old student from Saudi Arabia, filed the complaint Thursday in Marion County Circuit Court. Alqahtani claims in the suit that the bus driver told passengers the vehicle's windshield wipers were malfunctioning, which subsequently led to the driver losing control of the bus and rolling it onto its side.

Jason Reese, Alqahtani's attorney, told The Indianapolis Star that his client was on the top level of the bus, "dead asleep," when it crashed. Reese said Alqahtani was thrown from the vehicle as it rolled and the student suffered injuries to his head, brain, collarbone, ribs and lungs.

Alqahtani, who is in the United States on a visa and studying English at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis on a scholarship, has been unable to return to school since the crash, Reese said.

The Megabus was traveling from Atlanta to Chicago about 4:25 a.m. on northbound I-65 near Greenwood when the accident occurred, state police said. A sedan had hit the cable barriers in the I-65 median and slid off the rain-slicked road about 10 minutes earlier. The bus then clipped the sedan before striking the cable barriers itself and overturning.

Eighteen of the 50 to 60 passengers on board were taken to area hospitals

Alqahtani was visiting friends in Nashville, where he boarded the bus to Indianapolis.

Four Chicago residents involved in the crash also filed a lawsuit against the bus company on a claim of negligence.

Call Star reporter Michael Anthony Adams at (317) 444-6123. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelAdams317.