Teacher In School Bus Accident Sues Bus Company, Drivers

HARTFORD

A teacher who says he was injured in a school bus crash in January in which a Rocky Hill student died filed a lawsuit today against the school bus company, the bus driver, the teenage driver who was involved in the collision with the bus, and the teenager's father.

Richard D. Sams, who lives in East Haddam, was hospitalized after the crash and suffered numerous injuries, according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Hartford.

Vikas Parikh, 16, a junior at Rocky Hill High School and the Greater Hartford Academy of Math and Science in Hartford, died in the Jan. 9 accident on I-84. He was one of a group of students in a robotics club heading to Farmington for the kickoff of a competition.

Defendants in the lawsuit are Autumn Transportation Inc. of Rocky Hill; bus driver Paul Burns; Christopher Toppi, 16, of Glastonbury, who was driving the Volvo station wagon involved in the morning collision; and his father, Michael Toppi.

Sams' suit alleges that Burns and Christopher Toppi failed to have their vehicles under proper control; failed to keep a proper and reasonable lookout for other vehicles on the highway; and operated their vehicles at unreasonable speeds.