Family of teen injured in New Prairie bus crash files lawsuit against Amazon
LAPORTE COUNTY, Ind.-- Bradley Bradshaw said he's still haunted by the memory of the May 8, 2025, bus crash, in which he was driving one of the two buses carrying New Prairie High School junior varsity baseball players.
"Every time I look in the rearview mirror, I still see a truck... whenever I look up, I still see that truck getting ready to hit us," he said. "It's the one thing I'm never going to get out of my mind."
He has recovered from his physical injuries, but his son, Lucas Bradshaw, didn't get so lucky and faces lifelong disability.
The driver, Shawn Akison, pleaded guilty in March to Causing Catastrophic Injury When Operating a Motor Vehicle While Intoxicated, a Level 4 Felony, and Causing Serious Bodily Injury when Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated, a Level 5 Felony. In April, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for the first count and four years for the second. The sentences must be served consecutively, but the last three years are suspended for probation.
Bradley and his wife, Kelley, were in Chicago Thursday alongside their attorneys to announce a lawsuit against Amazon for its alleged role in the crash.
They said Lucas has incurred more than $1.2 million in medical expenses. The teenager still struggles with his gait and his vision and will only be able to attend a couple of hours of high school a day when his senior year begins in August.
"He has a laundry list of things he wants to do. He would like to play baseball again. I don't foresee that happening as a parent. But he has a goal, so if we can help him with it, we're going to," Kelley Bradshaw said. "He wants to farm when he graduates. That's been in his blood since he was born. So, things on the farm have changed some, on how we do things, but we're trying to make that work as well."
It was May 8, 2025, when St. Joseph County Police tried to pull over Akison, who was driving erratically. This led to a police pursuit that lasted right up to the county line. Eight minutes later, Akison slammed into two new Prairie minibuses carrying the junior varsity baseball team.
He later admitted to being on drugs and distracted; he said he was checking the Amazon Relay app seconds before impact.
"We're critical of a few things with respect to Amazon. First is authorizing this driver to become an Amazon relay driver in the first place," said attorney Nick Kamenjarin of Lane Brown, LLC, who is representing the Bradshaws.
He and his partner, Scott Lane, said Akison had a laundry list of driving violations, including a felony possession charge after drugs were found in his box truck following an Amazon delivery just three months before the New Prairie crash.
"There were multiple missed red flags," he said. "About as many missed red flags as you can imagine."
Akison was not a direct employee of Amazon; rather, he was hired by a third-party carrier, Elite Courier, LLC. However, Kamenjarin and Lane said that the distinction is irrelevant because Akison was acting as an agent of Amazon at the time of the crash.
"So, we've got Mr. Akison, who has this long history of driving and drug issues. He shouldn't have been on the road in the first place. So, the defendants dropped the ball with respect to that, so changes need to be made," Lane said.
The plaintiffs listed in the 63-page complaint, filed July 10, include Amazon Logistics, Inc., Amazon.com Services, LLC, Amazon.com Inc., Elite Courier Inc., Enterprise Leasing Company of Chicago, LLC, Shawn Akison, and St. Joseph County, Indiana.
The St. Joseph County Police Department (SJCPD) terminated its police pursuit of Akison at the county line with Laporte County, and the attorneys alleged it did not alert neighboring agencies of the erratic driver. SJCPD has previously stated otherwise.
ABC57 reached out to all relevant parties and has yet to hear back from SJCPD, Elite Courier, the carrier that hired Akison, and Enterprise Leasing, which owned the truck Akison was driving.
Amazon sent the following statement to ABC57: “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.”
Lucas suffered the worst injuries, but six other students and two coaches were hurt as well, including Bradley.
"Everyone grew up that day for the wrong reasons, in my opinion. They saw Lucas in a very bad state, they saw their coaches beaten up, battered," he said, "but we're staying positive. We're going forward. We cannot go back to May 2025. "