Family Sues Bus Agency over Death of Daughter
Chicago Tribune, Metropolitan Digest, 11/18/2005
11/18/2005 - Chicago Tribune, Metropolitan Digest
Champaign County
The family of a Deerfield teenager who died after she was hit by a bus sued the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District on Thursday.
Sarah Channick, 18, was walking across the street on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Sept. 29 when she was hit by the bus, police said.
The suit, filed in Champaign County Circuit Court, alleges that the transit company and the bus driver were negligent because the driver failed to yield to a pedestrian and didn’t give an audible warning.
The driver, Demetra Camile Young, 22, was cited by police for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
Officials from the transit agency declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Young, who had been driving the bus for less than a month, is on paid leave from her job, transit officials said. She is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 16 on the driving violations.
Channick, who was a freshman at the university, was the daughter of Robert Channick, a freelance reporter who frequently contributes to the Tribune.
