Articles Posted in Bus Accident

Two passengers are dead as a result of injuries suffered during a bus crash yesterday on State Route 1 in Delaware. The bus driver and passengers were taken to area hospitals for treatment.

The AM USA Express bus was turning onto an exit ramp when it overturned. The bus continued to slide on its roof, traveling down a slight grass embankment and then rotating onto its left side where it came to rest, said Delaware State Police Sgt. Paul G. Shavack.

The Delaware bus crash forced the closure of Del. 1 in both directions and caused hours-long delays and miles-long backups. Emergency responders needed 16 ambulances to treat and transport victims to local hospitals. Paramedics coordinated transportation with local hospitals as not to overload a single emergency department facility, said Paramedic Sgt. Michael A. McColley of New Castle County Emergency Medical Services.

As the third tour bus crash in upstate New York during the past three weeks, a bus transporting Polish sightseers on August 3 lost control and overturned on I-81. Officials said all aboard were injured (news reports vary, claiming the number of passengers between 28-30 people); there were no fatalities. Police cited dense rain and “speed too fast for the conditions” as the causes of the wreck, which took place on a rustic stretch of highway near Whitney Point, NY.

The bus was en route from Niagara Falls, NY, to Trenton, NJ, when it reportedly veered off I-81 southbound, plummeted down an 80-foot grass bank, and rolled onto its roof in a ravine. Among the injured, one woman was pinned beneath the bus for more than one hour, according to reports, before rescue workers could successfully dig her free. State police said 19 people injured in the wreck were cared for at three Binghamton-region hospitals. By Thursday, August 4, the day following the crash, all had been reportedly released. Officials said the state police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement unit took the bus to an undisclosed location to perform an examination of the vehicle and a further investigation into the cause of the accident.

According to the police, the bus was licensed to Princeton Holdings Inc. of Morrisville, PA, a company that also runs the Trenton-based Amerpol Tours. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration files show the company earned a “satisfactory” safety grade (the best of three levels) in October 2009. Over the past two years, data shows four inspections of the bus found small equipment issues, as well as a neglect in keeping data aimed at battling driver tiredness, but none warranted removal from service. No records indicate alcohol or substance abuse violations associated with the bus or company.

A 26-year-old man was killed in Philadelphia recently after a SEPTA bus ran him over. According to a news report on Philly.com, the fatal pedestrian accident occurred on Knights Road at the Frankford Transportation Station. The man was trying to catch the bus when he stumbled and fell underneath the wheel of the Route 14 bus. He died from his injuries the next morning in a nearby hospital. It is unclear what caused the man to trip or why the bus driver failed to stop for the man before the accident occurred.

Bus accident litigation can become extremely complicated. Anyone who has suffered a loss in a Pennsylvania bus accident would be well-advised to seek legal guidance from a skilled attorney to understand the legal options available to them. Depending upon the cause of the crash, the liable parties in such a case could include an at-fault driver, an insurance company, or the company that owns the bus or a mass transit carrier.

There are a number of state laws that affect who may be held liable for a Pennsylvania bus accident, what types of damages may be covered by a claim and how long the victim has to pursue damages. It is crucial that anyone who has suffered a loss in a bus accident contact a lawyer before the statute of limitations runs out and they are unable to collect damages.

WNEP-TV reports that a school bus caught on fire in Carroll Township without anyone onboard suffering injuries on Sunday morning, May 15. According to the article, the bus was on its way towards Gettysburg with 45 students and adults from the Jim Thorpe area school district in Carbon County when the incident occurred.

At about 10:19 a.m., the bus began to smoke and lose power. The driver pulled off to the side of the road on Route 15 near Dillsburg, south of Harrisburg, and was able to evacuate all of the occupants of the bus before it caught fire. No injuries were reported. When emergency personnel arrived at the scene, the bus was fully engulfed in flames. All of the students’ belongings onboard the bus were destroyed. The bus is owned by Kuhn Transportation in Schuylkill County, and the owner of the company says the fire chief told him a faulty fuel pump was the reason for the fire.

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) reports that about 2,210 bus or school bus fires were reported, on average, every year between 1999 and 2003 (the most recent years statistics are available). These fires caused an estimated yearly average of three fatalities and 30 people injured. Overall, during this time period, bus or school fires accounted for about one percent of the total reported vehicle fires, one percent of vehicle fire fatalities, and two percent of vehicle fire injuries. On average, every day six bus or school bus fires were reported during this time period.

On May 5, Ray LaHood, the U.S. Transportation Secretary, announced new measures the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is implementing to help guarantee that bus passengers are traveling as safely as possible.

Now, the DOT will require more rigorous testing standards for commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), as well as create new rules to reinforce the compliance of federal safety regulations by passenger carriers and their drivers. Additionally, along with state law enforcement, the FMCSA will conduct unannounced motorcoach inspections at popular travel destinations such as amusement parks, casinos, national parks, and sports event venues throughout the spring and summer seasons.

The FMCSA also announced a new rule which requires anyone who applies for a CDL to obtain a commercial driver’s learner’s permit (CLP) first. The new rule also makes it mandatory for all state licensing agencies to use a testing system for CDLs that meets the CDL knowledge and skill standards of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators criteria, as well as disallows the use of foreign language interpreters during testing to reduce the potential for fraud. Previously, testing for CDLs were not uniform across the U.S. and applicants for CDLs were not required to obtain a CLP before a CDL.

Recently, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced that the agency, aided by local and state law enforcement officials, carried out 2,782 unannounced inspections of passenger carrier vehicles over nine days. As a result, 289 unsafe drivers or buses were removed from service.

As part of the FMCSA’s ongoing work to enforce passenger carrier safety across the country, the surprise inspections started on March 28 and lasted until April 6 of this year. Out-of-service violation citations were issued to 262 vehicles and 156 drivers. In addition to these inspections, 95 full safety compliance reviews were conducted in order to determine the safety rating of commercial bus companies.

Previously, during March 12 through March 28, at least 3,000 passenger carrier safety inspections were conducted in the U.S., which resulted in close to 300 passenger vehicles being removed from service. The FMCSA has significantly increased the number of compliance reviews and safety inspections on the over 3,700 motor coach companies registered in the U.S., in part due to the Motorcoach Safety Action Plan implemented in 2009. In 2010, 25,703 roadside safety motorcoach inspections were conducted, which is more than double the 12, 991 inspections conducted in 2005. Compliance reviews of motorcoach companies also doubled from 457 in 2005 to 1,042 in 2010. Passenger deaths have declined 19 percent, from 57 fatalities in 2004 to 46 in 2009, in what seems to be a direct result of increased inspections and compliance reviews.

An auto accident in Pennsylvania involving a school bus and pickup truck caused several injuries, The Pottstown Mercury reports. Officials say the accident happened in Greensburg, 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, when the school bus struck the pickup truck almost head-on, went off the roadway and slammed into a tree. The number or extent of the injuries for the motorists and their passengers is not known.

Pennsylvania school bus accidents can lead to devastating injuries. Hopefully, no one was seriously injured in this bus crash. When a school bus accident occurs as a result of the bus driver’s negligence, the injured victims can file a personal injury claim against the driver and his or her employer, the bus operator. In some cases, the school district can also be held liable.

An experienced Pennsylvania school bus accident lawyer will be able to analyze all aspects of an incident and determine fault and liability in such cases. Injured victims can seek compensation to cover medical expenses, hospital costs, pain and suffering and other related damages.

A fatal double-decker Megabus accident occurred on Friday which took the lives of four passengers and seriously injured several others. According to the New York Daily News, the bus driver got lost while en route to Regional Transportation Center on Park Street in Central New York and ended up on the Onondaga Lake Parkway where the bus crashed into a bridge overhead. The bus, carrying 28 passengers, including some Pennsylvania residents flipped over.

Four people, including two teenagers were killed in this tragic bus accident. Two of the individuals who were seriously injured and one of those killed were living in Philadelphia before the accident. One of the victims was a 39-year old woman visiting from India and another victim was a 35-year old reverend from Malaysia who was doing a tour of the United States. The bus originated in Philadelphia and was scheduled to stop in Syracuse, Buffalo and Toronto according to a representative of the bus operator, Coach USA. The bus crash shut down both sides of the highway for hours and 24 passengers were taken to a local area hospital. The 59-year old bus driver suffered a head injury but was able to speak to investigators. It is not believed that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in 2008, there were 307 commercial bus accident fatalities. While bus accidents are fairly uncommon, the sheer size and lack of safety restraints in some of these vehicles can contribute to the tragic outcome that can occur as a result.

Trial began recently in the case of a Cumberland Valley School District bus that hit a tree in Middlesex Township after an eight-year-old passenger put his hands over the bus driver’s eyes according to The Patriot-News. The plaintiffs are the parents of a child injured in the crash. The defendants include the school district, the bus company Rohrer Inc. of Duncannon, and the driver, Chad Kovach.

In April 2006, the school bus involved in the accident was carrying the plaintiffs’ three children and seven others when one of the children put his hands over the bus driver’s eyes. The bus crashed into a tree, and the plaintiffs’ youngest son, then in kindergarten, suffered a broken collarbone and cuts to his head. Police determined that the bus driver was not at fault for the crash.

In December 2009, a Cumberland County court ruled that the school district could not invoke governmental immunity to protect itself from the lawsuit.