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Children of Woman Fatally Struck by CTA Bus File Lawsuit

 A female pedestrian was killed and nine other people were injured after a No. 148 CTA bus crashed onto the sidewalk on Michigan Avenue Tuesday evening, officials said.
A female pedestrian was killed and nine other people were injured after a No. 148 CTA bus crashed onto the sidewalk on Michigan Avenue Tuesday evening, officials said.
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DNAinfo/Kyla Gardner

DOWNTOWN — The children of the suburban woman killed by a CTA bus last week are now taking the transit agency to court.

Elaine and John Wilson are suing the Chicago Transit Authority and bus driver Donald Barnes for wrongful death in the collision that took the life of their mother, Aimee Coath of Flossmoor, according to their Chicago law firm, Clifford Law Offices. The lawsuit filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court seeks unspecified damages in excess of $100,000 to be determined later, according to the complaint

"It was a very tragic death on what everyone would agree was unexpected, should not have happened, and must be prevented in the future," Clifford Managing Partner Henry Simmons said. "The family is devastated."

Simmons said Coath, 51, was Downtown to attend a meeting and on her way to the Metra station June 2 when the No. 148 bus ran through a red light and careened into cars and pedestrians outside Michigan Plaza, 205 N. Michigan Ave., killing Coath and injuring eight others. 

Dave Matthews discusses the details of the lawsuit:

Coath, a longtime Gap Inc. employee and store manager, was in the midst of planning her daughter Elaine's wedding in the fall before the collision. Coath also planned to attend Elaine Wilson's graduation from the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island later this month before being killed. 

"We know that our lives have now been irreversibly changed and this action can never bring our dear mother back, but there has to be full disclosure of the facts as to why something like this could happen," the Coath family said in a statement posted to the law firm's website

Barnes, 48, had been a CTA employee for less than a year before the collision, and was the lone passenger on the bus during the incident. He was sent to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries last week, but his medical condition was unknown Monday. 

CTA spokesman Jeff Tolman declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the agency had not yet had a chance to review the complaint by Monday afternoon. Tommy Sams, the president of bus driver union Local 241 Amalgamated Transit Union, did not return messages seeking comment. 

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