Amazon sued after Indiana teen suffered life-changing injuries in school bus crash

INDIANA - The family of a Northwest Indiana teen who suffered devastating, life-changing injuries in a school bus crash last year is now suing Amazon and several other companies, alleging they failed to keep an unsafe commercial truck driver off the road.

FOX Chicago's Kasey Chronis spoke exclusively with Lucas Bradshaw's parents and their attorney on Wednesday. 

Amazon sued after Indiana teen seriously injured in crash

Lucas Bradshaw was 16 years old when he was thrown from a school bus on the way to a baseball game, suffering a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken bones, and respiratory failure.

Now, more than one year later, his family says the truck driver isn't the only one who should be held responsible.

The civil lawsuit, filed in LaPorte County Superior Court, alleges Amazon and the other defendants failed to properly screen, monitor, and remove Shawn Akison, 42, of Romeoville, Illinois, from hauling commercial freight despite warning signs about his driving history.

The lawsuit, filed last week, names Amazon Logistics, Amazon.com Services, LLC, Amazon.com, Inc., Elite Courier, Inc., Enterprise Leasing Company of Chicago, St. Joseph County, Indiana, and Akison as defendants. 

The backstory:

On May 8, 2025, Lucas was on his way to a baseball game with his teammates when a box truck slammed into their school bus on U.S. Route 20 in LaPorte County, Indiana. 

"To this day, I still look in the rearview mirror and see the truck hitting us. It's tough," said Bradley Bradshaw, Lucas's father. 

Before the life-altering crash, Lucas was a typical 16-year-old. A student at New Prairie High School in New Carlisle, Indiana, his life revolved around baseball, school, and his family's farm.

But that all changed last year, when his team was on their way to an away game in Hobart, Indiana.

His dad, Bradley Bradshaw, a volunteer coach, was driving the school bus.

"We were slowing down for a stoplight, and he was still going," said Bradley Bradshaw. "I remember yelling to the boys, 'We're about to get hit.' It was mass chaos."

According to the lawsuit, Akison was traveling 73 miles per hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone. 

"The crash and the violence of the crash caused the bus to overturn, and Lucas was ejected from the bus. He was found about 75 feet from the bus," said Nick Kamenjarin, partner with Lane Brown, LLC. 

Lucas was unconscious.

As his dad was taken away in an ambulance, the teen was airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital where he remained in a coma for 54 days. 

His hospital stay was even longer. 

"It was a long 125 days," said Kelley Bradshaw, Lucas's mother. 

While the Bradshaws and the community rallied around Lucas, authorities turned their attention to the crash.

According to officials, Akison was behind the wheel of the box truck, and it was determined he was under the influence of fentanyl.

He pleaded guilty to OWI Causing Catastrophic Injury and OWI Causing Serious Bodily Injury. Under the plea agreement, Akison was sentenced to nine years in prison followed by three years of probation, according to the LaPorte County Sheriff's Office. 

The lawsuit states that at the time of the crash, Akison was hauling an Amazon load through the company's Relay program while employed by Elite Courier, Inc., a third-party trucking company with a listed address in Naperville.

According to Amazon's website, Amazon Relay "gives trucking companies of all sizes free access to instantly book spot loads and contracts."

However, the family's attorney argues that Akison should have never been cleared to drive commercially in the first place. 

"He had accumulated decades of driving-related violations," Kamenjarin said. "He was the subject of multiple 911 calls back in January in connection to driving a commercial box truck erratically and recklessly and almost hitting several motorists. All of the red flags and warning signs were there for Amazon to pick up on and disqualify him as a driver."

The family is also suing St. Joseph County because on the day of the May crash, according to Kamenjarin, deputies there "observed Akison's dangerous driving, pursued him, and then terminated that pursuit at the county line without notifying neighboring law enforcement of the known and ongoing danger Akison presented."

While Akison was not directly employed by Amazon, Kamenjarin argues there are grounds to sue the company following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May that allows state-law negligent hiring claims against freight brokers to move forward.

The decision stems from Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, in which Shawn Montgomery suffered severe and permanent injuries after his tractor-trailer was struck by another truck driver in December 2017. 

What they're saying:

An Amazon spokesperson provided the following statement to FOX Chicago in response to the lawsuit:

"This was a tragedy, and our hearts are with the families affected as they recover and the entire LaPorte County community. Given this is active litigation, we have no further comment."

FOX Chicago has not yet heard back from Enterprise, Elite Courier, Inc., or St. Joseph County for comment. 

Dig deeper:

Since the crash, Lucas's mom, Kelley, shares that he has undergone 10 procedures, including brain surgery, and countless hours of physical and occupational therapy. 

"He had his bone flap removed, so it released the pressure on his brain," Kelley Bradshaw explained. 

Lucas's vision remains impaired, and cognitively, he is still catching up. 

"His gait, watch him walk, you would assume he probably had a stroke, and mentally slower to respond," Kelley Bradshaw said. "As the neurosurgeon explained to us, we're waiting on the brain."

His parents say his medical bills have totaled more than $1.2 million and counting, but they say this lawsuit is also about what was taken from their son. 

"That's what this case is about, a 16-year-old who was robbed of the upper classman baseball opportunities he had, the agriculture opportunities," Kamenjarin said. 

Lucas has always dreamed of following in his parents' footsteps on the family farm. 

"He started planting corn, I think when he was 10, and by age 13 he was planting all our corn for us," Bradley Bradshaw said. 

This spring, Lucas took another huge step in his recovery — returning to his lifelong passion by getting back on the tractor.  

"It wasn't how he liked it to be,. There's some crooked rows, there's some spots missing, but the field's planted and we count that as a win," Bradley Bradshaw said. 

The Bradshaws say they also hope this lawsuit leads to stricter vetting of commercial drivers.

What's next:

The lawsuit will now move through the legal process as the defendants prepare to respond.

Lucas, who was limited to homebound instruction during his junior year, will return to the classroom this fall on a condensed schedule and plans to graduate next spring.

 

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