The Region - News from Jan. 26, 1987

The family of a 68-year-old Tarzana woman who died after she lost part of her leg in the crash of a Southern California Rapid Transit District bus filed a wrongful-death suit seeking unspecified damages against the transit agency. The lawsuit, filed by the husband and two children of Lois Welbon, stems from the only fatality in the July 31 overturning of an RTD bus on the Hollywood Freeway that injured 26 passengers and spawned a growing public outcry about the RTD’s accident record. Welbon, who was blind, was on her way home from her daily work as a Braille Institute volunteer when the crash occurred. She died six weeks later, after her crushed lower left leg was amputated. The lawsuit names bus driver Shirley Riojas and her instructor, Raul Elemer Lewenburg, who was on board. Also named as a defendant is the California Department of Transportation, which designed the Western Avenue bus off-ramp upon which the bus careened out of control.