ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In April of 2022, a city bus driver lost control and slammed into the I-25 underpass near Lomas.

“This bus driver should never have been on the road to begin with,” said attorney David C. Chavez, who is representing Lillian Rothchild’s family.

After slamming into the wall, many passengers were hurt. Lillian was a passenger on the bus and was thrown from her seat.

“Ms. Rothchild, our client, is seated in a bench seat opposite of the bus driver. So when the collision occurs, she gets ejected out of the seat and she has impact on a metal compartment which is directly behind the bus driver,” Chavez said.

He explained that as a result of those injuries, 69-year-old Lillian died about a month later. Chavez has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque on behalf of her family. The family could get up to $750,000.

“She just succumbed to the injuries. There were multiple injuries that she had, bodily injuries. She had a number of broken bones,” Chavez said.

Both the City of Albuquerque and the bus driver are named in the lawsuit. The bus driver had also scraped a wall while getting onto the highway about 40 seconds before the crash.

“He had a number of duties that were owed to prevent this accident from occurring,” Chavez said. “The driver had a high fever and was taking over-the-counter medication. So this bus driver should never on the road to begin with, driving a bus with other passengers on board. “

Chavez says that after the crash, the city didn’t give the driver a drug/alcohol test, which is standard practice.

“There was no alcohol blood test that was taken by the City of Albuquerque in this case, and the reason stated for that was because the employee was hospitalized,” Chavez said. “But regardless if he’s hospitalized or not, typically it’s common practice that you can take an alcohol drug test.”

Nearly two years later, the family is still trying to recover from the loss.

“They’ve had a lot of support from other family members but it’s a very tragic loss,” Chavez said. “She was very close with her son and her granddaughter and the rest of her family members, her sister. So it leaves a great void in the family.”

As for the next steps, the city has to answer the suit and then they will move through the legal process.