Gina Pellettiere's Estate Files Lawsuit In Farmingdale HS Marching Band Crash

FARMINGDALE, NY — The estate of Gina Pellettiere has filed a lawsuit against the bus company, tire company and driver involved in the crash that killed the Farmingdale High School band director and chaperone Beatrice "Bea" Ferrari on Sept. 21, 2023, court documents show.

Last year, a bus carrying the Farmingdale High School marching band crashed and tumbled down a 50-foot ravine, killing Pellettiere, 43, and Ferrari, 77, a retired teacher. The band was headed to Greeley, Pennsylvania, for its annual band camp. The crash injured dozens of students on bus one.

Diane and Joseph Pellettiere, the administrators of Pellettiere's estate, filed the lawsuit in Nassau County Supreme Court last week. The suit accuses Regency Transportation, the Nesconset-based bus service; Lisa Schaffer, the bus driver; and Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations of alleged negligence. They are seeking unspecified monetary damages.

The lawsuit, filed by Garden City-based attorney Deanne Caputo on behalf of the Pellettiere estate, claims that the bus that Pellettiere was on "violently and without warning veered off the roadway and overturned down an embankment, striking the ground and multiple trees/objects." The lawsuit claims the driver drove the bus at "excessive rates of speed" before the crash and did not have the bus "under reasonable control, amongst other issues."

The bus company and driver were accused by the lawsuit of "negligence, carelessness and recklessness" in how the bus was owned, operated, managed, maintained, equipped, controlled, supervised, and inspected.

The lawsuit alleges that Regency Transportation and Schaffer failed to properly and thoroughly inspect the said bus, including its brakes, all equipment and tires.

The front tire on the driver's side was "dangerous, hazardous, defective, inferior, unsafe, asymmetrical, warped, improperly inflated, cupped, rotten, misaligned, lacked proper traction, had insufficient tread, was out of round, runout and/or could not maintain continuous roadway contact, causing the said bus to be prone to drift and/or become out of control and causing the said bus to be unsafe to be operated on the roadway at the time of this crash," the suit claims. The tire was manufactured by Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit argues that Regency Transportation and the bus driver had an "unacceptable" rating from the New York State Department of Transportation.

Caputo did not issue further comment on the case.

Regency Transportation or Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations did not respond to Patch's request for comment. An attorney for Schaffer could not immediately be reached for comment.