Jury clears Greyhound of negligence in California crash that killed 6

(Adds details of case, background on accident)

LOS ANGELES, March 24 (Reuters) - A California civil court jury on Tuesday cleared the Greyhound bus company of negligence in a lawsuit brought by families of three of the six people killed when a motor coach plowed into an overturned SUV near Fresno, the Fresno Bee reported.

The bus driver, two Greyhound passengers and the three occupants of the sport utility vehicle, including a woman who police said was drunk behind the wheel of the Chevrolet Trailblazer, were killed in the predawn July 22, 2010, wreck on Highway 99.

The lawsuit contended that the Greyhound driver was at fault for the deaths of the three SUV victims because he was speeding and not wearing his eyeglasses when his bus slammed into the Trailblazer, which had crashed moments before and rolled over in traffic lanes, according to the Bee.

The suit argued that dozens of other motorists on the highway had avoided hitting the overturned SUV and that the bus driver should also have managed to avoid it had he not been careless, the newspaper said.

The California Highway Patrol investigators blamed the deadly crash on 18-year-old Sylvia Garay, who they said was intoxicated while driving the SUV. They also asserted that the Greyhound driver was wearing his glasses and did nothing wrong in failing to see the dark undercarriage of the Trailblazer.

During the trial, according to the Bee, attorneys for the plaintiffs sought to dispute evidence that Garay was at the wheel of the vehicle.

The jury sided with Greyhound, whose attorney, Dana Alden Fox, accused the plaintiffs' attorneys of trying to win "the litigation lottery," the Bee reported.

Greyhound is a division of British transport company FirstGroup Plc (LSE: FGP.L - news) . (Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)