Family Outraged by ‘Lightweight Punishment’ for Bus Driver who Killed Retired Teacher

Ohio: In a tragic incident in Ohio, a public bus driver with a suspended license struck and killed 87-year-old Beverly Kinney, a retired schoolteacher, as she crossed a street near her home.

Driver on Probation After Fatal Crosswalk Accident

The driver, Deon Willis, 47, will not serve jail time but has been sentenced to five years of probation, 1,000 hours of community service, and a five-year suspension of his driver’s license. The sentencing was handed down by Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Samantha Silverstein, who emphasized that Willis’s community service should be done in memory of Kinney, who was active in local volunteer work.

Willis had pleaded guilty to a charge of vehicular homicide in July, acknowledging his responsibility for the accident. The incident occurred on January 11 at Dana Avenue and Duck Creek Road intersect. Kinney was about eight to ten feet into the crosswalk when Willis, who was making a right turn, struck her. A crash report later revealed that Willis was operating the bus with a suspended license at the time of the accident. He was charged on May 17 and subsequently terminated from his job on June 10 for failing to adhere to mandatory turning procedures, which led to the preventable accident.

Family’s Lawsuit Against Willis and Transit Authority

While Willis’s sentencing has spared him jail time, the Kinney family is pursuing a civil lawsuit against him and the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), which employed him. The family’s law firm, Cooper Elliot, issued a statement expressing disappointment with what they view as a lenient sentence. They argue that a harsher penalty was warranted to protect the public from Willis’s dangerous driving and that his liability for the accident, as established by his guilty plea, paves the way for a civil trial.

The lawsuit claims that the crash was preventable, citing Willis’s poor driving record before and during his employment with SORTA. The family’s lawsuit references a previous incident on December 1, 2018, in which Willis ran a red light and struck a 24-year-old man, leaving him in a coma for two months. Despite these incidents, SORTA continued to allow Willis to operate its buses, a decision that the Kinney family believes contributed to Beverly Kinney’s death.

Willis’s Defense and Future Legal Proceedings

Willis’s defense attorney described the case as a tragic one, noting that Willis, a married father of three, had been a Metro bus driver for about six years without any criminal record. However, he had accumulated a list of traffic infractions. According to his attorney, Willis has accepted responsibility for Kinney’s death, has undergone counseling, and remains deeply troubled by the event. He has also expressed his condolences to Kinney’s husband and son.

Cincinnati Metro, in a statement, claimed that as of January 4, 2024, Willis’s license was reported as valid, and the organization had not received any notifications to the contrary before the incident. The ongoing civil lawsuit will further scrutinize the actions of both Willis and SORTA, with the Kinney family seeking accountability and safer streets for Cincinnati residents.