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.

Millions of passengers rely on buses and other forms of public transportation to get them from point A to point B on a daily basis. As passengers, we trust that the bus driver will safely get us to our destination. This is not always the case, however.

Bus accidents change lives. Bus accident injuries can be severe and permanent, and they can lead to extensive medical care and lost wages. A bus company should be held accountable when it fails to live up to its promise to safely transport passengers to their destination.

Fighting against the bus company can be difficult. They have a team of lawyers dedicated to defending them. Bus crash victims deserve their own team of bus accident lawyers. Anapol Weiss has that covered.

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.