NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – After a bus containing the cast of the critically acclaimed Showtime series "Billions" was left sliding in a driverless bus on a snowy road in New York, one passenger has filed a $4 million lawsuit that says the incident has given her a fear of buses.
Elena Bleskina filed her lawsuit June 24 in New York County Supreme Court against the charter bus owner, Best Trails & Travel, and driver August Gitto. She says she was traumatized when Gitto parked the bus on a snowy hill in New Paltz and stepped off it.
The bus slid down the hill.
“Since the date of that incident, Plaintiff has been unable to overcome the fear of riding on a bus,” the lawsuit says. “The aforementioned incident caused Plaintiff to suffer prolonged trauma and sustained psychological and emotional injuries, for which she was and is being treated, as well to incur additional expenses.”
Severe headaches, anxiety and a sleep disorder are the results of watching the bus slide down the hill from her front-seat position, the lawsuit says. It blames Best Trails for negligently supervising its employees.
“Defendant Best Trails & Travel knew or should have known that its policies and practices, as well as its grossly negligent and negligent supervision and training of employees and/or bus drivers, created an atmosphere where an employee felt assured he or she could negligently step out of an unsecured bus parked on a treacherous, snowy mountain road hill and walk down said hill while transporting Defendant Best Trails & Travel’s passengers,” the suit says.
Bleskina seeks $1 million in compensatory damages and another $3 million in punitive damages. Attorney Vano Haroutunian of Ballon Stoll in New York City has taken her case.
Bleskina is a producer, according to her LinkedIn page, but doesn’t appear on the full credits list for "Billions." The cast was being driven from a set to their accommodations when the sliding incident occurred.
No other passenger has sued over the slide.