A wrongful death case is headed to trial in San Francisco in February, brought by the family of a man who overdosed on fentanyl and meth while sitting on a 9-San Bruno Muni bus, and was left there slumped over by the bus operator for hours.The incident occurred three years ago, on September 1, 2023. 32-year-old Quinton Allen boarded the 9-San Bruno bus and took a seat in the back row around 8:30 am, possibly not headed anywhere and just looking for a place to rest, or sleep. At least once, while he was still conscious, Allen exchanged some words with a Muni fare inspector, as the Chronicle reports. But perhaps because he seemed to be in a heavily intoxicated state, he was allowed to remain in his seat.Bus driver Harry Tam reportedly tried to rouse Allen several times, banging on the bus windows, yelling, and even trying to slam a storage compartment door nearby, to no avail. As Tam has testified in a sworn statement, he believed Allen was sleeping — just another in a long series of people, many of them unhoused, who find their way onto the public transit system and take naps there.But Allen's family — he has two children, a 17-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, who are being represented by guardians in the case, with attorney Anna Dubrovsky — is now suing both the City of San Francisco and Tam, claiming negligence and wrongful death.Tam ultimately completed two loops on the 9-San Bruno route, to Visitacion Valley and back, that day in 2023 before finally flagging down a Muni supervisor on Market Street around 1 pm and telling them to call 911.Allen's family, and Dubrovsky, say that perhaps Allen's life could have been saved if Tam had acted differently and followed protocol. Allen's mother, Catherine Byrd-Shelton, tells the Chronicle that she believed Allen might have survived if Tam had called in a supervisor or called 911 when he reached his first terminus in Visitacion Valley and was unable to rouse the already unconscious Allen.Tam contends that sleeping passengers, even those who don't respond when nudged, do not automatically prompt the need to call for emergency services. But Dubrovsky plans to argue in court that Tam ignored what was clearly a dire situation for Allen and failed to give it the priority status that is called for in the Muni operator manual.The City Attorney's Office has not commented on the case other than to say "Any loss of life is a tragedy," per the Chronicle. But attorneys representing Tam have said in court documents that Allen caused his own death, and the plaintiffs have not presented sufficient evidence to prove negligence in this case.We don't know of any similar case in recent years in San Francisco, though the story is emblematic of the city's ongoing drug and homelessness crises, with public transit operators often being tasked with acting as social workers, law enforcement, or medical first-responders.Earlier this year, a wrongful death suit was settled involving a bus driver in Las Vegas who reportedly ignored the cries of a man with cognitive difficulties who was being stabbed multiple times by another man, who was asking to get off the bus for several minutes while the altercation was taking place.Related: Another Muni Operator Appears to Fall Asleep at Controls, Crashes Into Empty Train ...read more read less