Four months after a Southeast Area Transit Authority bus rear-ended a handicapped van in Ledyard, passengers in that van are suing the bus company because of their injuries.

The people inside the handicapped van were from the Sunrise Northeast Group Home, an assisted-living facility in Old Lyme. They filed documents last week stating that they intend to sue SEAT, its employees and participating towns.

The accident happened around 9:30 a.m. Aug. 13 on Route 12 in Gales Ferry, between Long Cove Road and Van Tassel Drive. According to the report filed by Ledyard police, the SEAT bus hit the handicapped van from the rear.

Three out of the five injured people were taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, and the others were taken to The William W. Backus Hospital. Both vehicles were towed.

The driver of the SEAT bus, James E. Fear, 22, of 25 Lathrop Road, Uncasville, was charged with following too closely.

Robert Vastano, 75, was a passenger in a wheelchair in a van owned by the group home. He sustained broken ribs and vertebra, a fractured scalp and a punctured lung that fluid leaked into.

The lawsuit states Vastano has incurred, and will continue to incur, substantial medical expenses as a result of the accident and has permanent disfigurement.

Another passenger, Ronald Cirillo, 75, was in a wheelchair in the van at the time of the accident. The impact broke Cirillo's wheelchair and left him with a compound fracture in his right leg and a broken hip. His leg was amputated above the knee at L&M after the accident.

According to the lawsuit, Cirillo could move his legs before the accident, but could not support his weight on them, and claims he has suffered from physical impairment and mental distress because of the crash.

The driver of the handicapped van, Deborah Frappier, 51, of 278 Barstow Road, Canterbury, also filed documents that she intends to sue. Frappier said as a result of the accident, she sustained injuries to her right leg and knee, her neck, right arm, shoulder and suffers from pain and anguish.

The third passenger in the handicapped van, Eugene Wolak, 56, has not filed paperwork stating that he intends to sue SEAT and its associates.

Vastano and Cirillo are represented by the Reardon Law Firm P.C. of New London, and Frappier is represented by RisCassi & Davis P.C. of Hartford.

A.RENCZKOWSKI@THEDAY.COM

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