Bus Accident Attorney

The victim of a bus accident that took place on Interstate 55 in Chicago on Monday, December 28, 2015 has been identified as University of Iowa student Nicole Underwood. She was 22 years of age at the time of death. The accident happened near Damen Avenue. The charter bus was owned and operated by Burlington Trailways, and was carrying more than 30 passengers from Omaha, Nebraska to Chicago at the time the accident took place.

An on-board GPS device installed on the bus showed that the vehicle was traveling under the posted 55 mph speed limit at the time of the crash. According to officials from Burlington Trailways, the bus driver attempted to evade a pickup truck that had swerved into his lane of traffic at the last moment, causing the bus to collide with a lighted construction sign. The bus driver stated that he was driving in the right lane and preparing to exit the highway when the truck darted from the middle lane to the right lane, directly in front of him. The incident resulted in severe injury to Ms. Underwood, who was rushed to Mount Sinai hospital and later pronounced dead. Several other people were also injured in the crash and taken to Mercy Hospital and Saint Anthony’s Hospital. No word has been released on their current condition or identities.

The roadways were wet in Chicago that day, but it is not known whether the road conditions or vehicle’s condition may have played a contributing role in the crash. The bus driver is being tested for intoxicants per Burlington Trailways policy following an accident, and authorities are investigating the circumstances leading up to the incident.

Ms. Underwood was reportedly traveling from her home in Iowa to Chicago to spend time with her boyfriend on New Year’s Eve. Burlington Trailways released a statement expressing condolences to her family in wake of the accident.

An open-air tour bus involved in a major crash two weeks ago is being investigated by authorities from the state of California, as the bus may never have been properly registered nor inspected by state officials before being put on the roadways. At least 20 people were injured in the mid-November crash, including two pedestrians who ended up pinned by the bus, with five people sustaining serious injuries. The bus driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a construction site after smashing into multiple other vehicles in San Francisco’s Union Square. The bus was owned and operated by City Sightseeing, a local company that provides tours of landmark areas of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The make and model of the bus involved in the accident has a prior history of unreliability on the roads. The open, double-decker bus makes for an ideal view for tourists interested in seeing local sights, but the design of the bus gives it the potential to create disaster when involved in a crash. Twice the number of people can board a double-decker bus as can a standard city bus, and the make and model of the bus in question—the Orion VI—has a history of issues, ranging from unprovoked vehicular fires to loss of stability and overturning during a collision.

The bus involved in the San Francisco accident had once been owned by a Washington, D.C. company that sold off its Orion VI buses after their poor performance and lack of reliability and safety was noted. It is not clear how the D.C. bus managed to reach the hands of City Sightseeing in San Francisco, but the company may be in hot water over lack of registration and inspection by California officials. Officials from City Sightseeing have stated that the company’s buses are inspected once every month and a half, but records from the California Public Utilities Commission indicate that the bus was never registered with them and thus, never underwent a CHP inspection as required by law.

The driver of the bus reported that the brakes on the bus failed, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and leading to the multiple collisions that took place back on November 16. The Orion VI model was notorious for braking issues, but although the specific bus in question had been involved in at least two accidents before being sold to City Sightseeing, neither of these incidents were reported to be the result of brake failure.

A school bus with young passengers on board was involved in a collision with a car on the morning of Sunday, November 29, 2015 in Lakewood, New Jersey. The two vehicles crashed on West County Line Road, which led to the car being set ablaze. Although the details surrounding the accident remain unclear and the exact cause of the crash is not yet known, all children on board the bus were reported as uninjured. The car was severely damaged as a result of the fire that followed the crash.

The roadway near the corner of Teaberry Court was closed for the better part of an hour after the collision as the crash scene was cleaned up, with the road reopening after a 40-minute time period. Detours were put in place, but traffic was light and the closure did not result in any further problems for travelers. Firefighters from Debartolomeis and Lakewood Fire Departments responded on scene to put out the car fire and assess injuries. The fire did not spread to the bus involved in the crash, nor to any surrounding scenery.

The crash remains under investigation by authorities at this time. It is not known whether driver intoxication, distraction, or weather conditions may have played a role in the collision. The ages of the bus occupants have not been published, although the passengers were reported as being minor children.

According to statistics published by the New Jersey State Police Department, traffic accidents in 2015 have resulted in injury or fatality less often than in 2014 or 2013, with fatal crashes decreasing by more than 3 percent. The total number of crashes has been decreasing steadily since 2011 statewide, and in 2014 more than half of the traffic accidents that took place on N ew Jersey roadways resulted in property damage only.

A school bus transporting young students from a Head Start program in South Carolina was involved in a traffic accident on the afternoon of Monday, November 9, 2015, when a young woman driving a car allegedly ran a red light and slammed into the bus, causing it to overturn. Although all seven people on board the bus at the time were injured in the collision, all are expected to survive their injuries.

One student’s mother credits the bus being equipped with seatbelts as the reason why her four-year-old child is still alive. Although many buses do not have seat belts, some smaller buses—such as small school buses or paratransit buses—are equipped with restraint devices. Seatbelt installation can be cost prohibitive, and in some instances can actually provide an extra hurdle for first responders to cross when attempting to extract people from a crashed vehicle. However, in accidents like this one, where the bus overturns and passengers run the risk of being flung across the bus or out of windows, seatbelts can save lives.

Two adults and five young students were traveling on the bus when a 19-year-old female driving a sedan slammed into the bus and caused the crash. The sedan’s driver has been identified as Ginger Espes. The South Carolina Highway Patrol have reported that the woman is being charged with failure to obey a traffic signal. It is not known whether Espes herself was injured in the crash.

According to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, older buses are not required to be seatbelt equipped, while newer buses have seatbelts installed as a standard. Officials from Carolina Community Actions, the entity responsible for running the Head Start program in Chester County, South Carolina, have stated that all their Head Start buses have seatbelts in order to ensure the safety of their young passengers.

No one escaped unscathed from a horrific accident involving an overcrowded bus in Nepal on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. The bus was packed full of passengers, with many taking their chances at riding on the roof of the vehicle, and traveling along a dirt-and-gravel roadway cut into a hillside when the vehicle skidded down the hillside, leaving at least 30 people dead and another 35 with injuries. All injured parties were transported to area hospitals in neighboring towns. Their status and expected recovery is not known.

In Nepal, it is a common sight to see people on board a bus roof, as the nation is experiencing a marked shortage in fuel due to border tension and protesters blocking off gasoline supplies to the nation, leading to a transportation crisis and the need to use mass commuting to get around. However, overcrowding of buses has become a major safety concern, as such practices as roof riding can lead a vehicle to become unstable, which in turn can lead to passenger weight inadvertently overturning buses as they go around turns.

The exact cause of this crash has not been reported, but overcrowding is strongly suspected of playing a large role. The accident took place near a town called Ramche in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, located northwest of the nation’s capital of Kathmandu. The vehicle was driving along a mountain pass when, for reasons not yet clear, it plummeted more than 500 feet down the side of the foothill before coming to a stop on level ground below. Those injured in the crash were taken to medical centers in Kathmandu and Ramche for evaluation and treatment.

Many reasons are cited as being causal in the uptick in traffic accidents and fatalities in the nation of Nepal, including lack of governmental transparency with regard to traffic safety planning and poorly constructed and maintained roadways. According to data published by the World Health Organization, traffic accidents are the ninth leading cause of death in the country of Nepal. The northern parts of the country have few, if any, paved roads, making traversing the areas outside of large cities a difficult task.

A school bus transporting students from Lakeside High School in Hot Springs, Arkansas was involved in a traffic accident on the afternoon of Friday, October 23, 2015, injuring two adults and 10 students on board. The bus was traveling en route to a football game in De Queen at the time of the accident. The vehicle was on U.S. Highway 70 near the small town of Newhope when the incident—whose cause is still not known—took place.

Injured parties were transported to two area hospitals and school officials on site at each location reported that both adults and teens who were hurt in the crash are in stable condition at this time. One of the injured adults was reported to be the head coach of the Lakeside High School football team; the other injured adult was not identified, nor were any of the minors who were hurt in the accident.

The football game, which had been scheduled for Friday evening, was subsequently canceled. The bus that crashed was one of three vehicles transporting students to the game, and uninjured persons were boarded onto the remaining two buses following the incident. Arkansas State Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident at this time. It is not yet known whether road conditions, visibility, or other drivers’ actions may have played a role in this crash.

According to data released by the Arkansas State Police Department, there were 461 fatal traffic accidents in the year 2013, the last year for which data were made available. More than 58,000 traffic accidents took place statewide in the same year. In recent years, the Highway Safety Office of Arkansas has outlined annual highway safety plans in an effort to reduce injuries and fatalities on the state’s motorways. Ten-year data trends show that fatal crashes have decreased significantly over time, from 626 fatal accidents in 2004 to 461 in 2013.

A small New York school bus suddenly caught fire after colliding with a semi-truck on the Long Island Expressway early in the afternoon of Thursday, October 8, 2015. Both vehicles were traveling westward at the time of the collision, and two people—a teacher’s aide and the driver of the bus—were on board when the crash took place. Neither was injured in the accident. However, this may be due to the fact that both parties were rescued by an off-duty New York Police Department Transit Division cop who carried away both people just moments before the bus burst into flame.

The policeman, Officer Christopher Canale, was driving in his car accompanied by his wife when he saw the accident happen. He immediately leapt from the car and went on scene to the accident, looking for people inside the bus. Canale, father of two small preschool-aged children, reported that he felt he did what anyone would have done in his place.

After the accident, the bus’s driver was trapped behind the steering wheel, and Officer Canale heard screams coming from the disabled bus and came to offer assistance right away. He was able to free both the driver and the aide from the wreckage before the bus caught fire just moments later. The bus is reported to have smashed into the truck in a rear-end collision while the semi was pulled over to the far right shoulder of the expressway. The investigation into the precise cause of the accident is ongoing on this time.

Canale reported the aide as having been bloodied in the accident and appearing dazed, but no life-threatening injuries were sustained in the crash in spite of the explosive ending. Officer Canale is one of three siblings in his family who works in law enforcement, including one brother who is a twin, and is also the father of two children, aged 4 and 2.

Fog was determined to be at least partially to blame for a multiple-vehicle collision between three semi-trailers and a school bus in Kindred, North Dakota on the morning of Friday, September 25, 2015. The driver of the Kindred School District bus, as well as three of the students being transported that morning, was injured in the crash. The accident took place near where State Highway 46 intersects with Richland County Highway 1 around 9 a.m.

One of the semi-truck drivers was traveling northbound on Highway 1 when fog reportedly obscured his vision, rendering him unable to see the school bus heading eastbound on Highway 46, resulting in the initial collision. Two other semi-trucks then crashed into the two disabled vehicles. There were at least 32 students and three adults on board the school bus at the time of the crash. The bus was en route to a field trip when the accident occurred.

All four vehicles involved in the accident were severely damaged, but none of the injuries sustained in the crash were life-threatening and all injured parties are expected to make a full recovery. The school bus driver was trapped inside the vehicle for close to an hour as emergency crews worked to pull her from the wreckage. She was then taken by ambulance to a local medical center for evaluation and treatment.

The area where the accident happened is notorious for its morning fogginess, which resulted in severely impaired visibility on Friday. Visibility was said to be down to a quarter-mile at the time of the pile-up. One of the semi drivers sustained cuts and bruises and reported feeling shock after the collision, stating that he believed he could have stopped his vehicle in time had the fog not been so prevalent that morning.

A school bus accident ended tragically on the morning of Tuesday, September 15, 2015, when the bus was struck by another vehicle—one being driven by a district teacher—while traveling on an overpass. The collision caused the bus to tip over the guardrail, crashing onto Telephone Road below on its side. The accident resulted in two teenaged females—Janecia Chatman, aged 14, and Maryah Johnson, aged 17, losing their lives. Two more students were hurt, as was the driver of the bus. The extent of their injuries has been reported as serious.

Only four passengers were on board the bus at the time of the accident, at which time the bus was en route to nearby Furr High School. The accident occurred on westbound Interstate 610 at around 7 a.m. when a Buick slammed into the bus, causing the bus driver to lose control of the vehicle. It is not yet known why the driver of the car hit the bus. The Buick’s driver reported that another vehicle was entering her lane and she believed herself in danger of being hit, so she swerved and overcorrected, causing her vehicle to crash into the bus while on the 610 overpass. A portion of the freeway was shut down as police investigated the accident during the morning hours, re-opening just prior to noon.

At least one of the victims of the crash—Janecia Chatman, the 14-year-old girl whose life was lost—was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she later died. Maryah Johnson died at the scene. The students on board the bus during the accident attended Furr High School and REACH Charter High School, which is housed on Furr High School’s grounds. The families of the victims and the community in general are shaken by the accident, and the Johnson family has reported their intent to file a lawsuit in light of their daughter’s tragic death. Local police have detained the Buick’s driver for further questioning, and the National Transportation and Safety Board will be conducting an independent investigation.

The August 25, 2015 Thomasville, NC Greyhound bus crash was a truly unfortunate accident that, based on our initial investigation, could and should have been prevented. Our prayers go out to the crash victims and their families, as we wish them a full and fast recovery.

Having represented hundreds of injured bus passengers in similarly tragic crashes, we have not only seen the physical, emotional and financial impact an accident like this can have on both the passengers and their loved ones, but the efforts to which bus companies, like Greyhound, will go to avoid taking responsibility for the injuries that they caused.

Our firm was recently retained by several of the passengers who were injured in the crash and is working with our own team of accident reconstruction and federal motor carrier safety experts to determine (1) whether any mechanical defects existed on the bus, (2) why the bus driver failed to comply with Greyhound and Federal safety rules by pulling over and inspecting the bus before continuing with the trip, and (3) whether the relief bus driver (who resumed the trip in Charlotte) conducted the “pre trip” inspection required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

We will be regularly updating our website and blog with information about the crash as it becomes available to us.

http://www.zehllaw.com/greyhound-bus-accident-in-north-carolina-injures-10/

http://www.buscrashattorney.net

Based on our experience with Greyhound, the company and its claim representatives have likely started contacting injured passengers in an attempt to convince them to accept nominal settlements in exchange for a signed release/waiver.

Greyhound does this because they know that most passengers won’t realize or appreciate the extent of their injuries for days, weeks and sometimes even longer. By convincing passengers to accept trivial payments (often between $1,000 and $2,000) before they incur significant medical bills and realize the full extent of their injuries, Greyhound is able to permanently avoid any further responsibility for the passengers’ medical expenses and other damages.

We therefore urge all passengers involved in the crash to do the following before accepting any compensation or signing any documents from Greyhound or their claims representatives:

1. Read the entire release:

If you have any questions at all, please have it reviewed by an attorney with experience representing injured bus passengers. Most law firms will do this for free, so you won’t have to worry about any out of pocket costs.

2. Get examined by your family doctor or a specialist who has experience diagnosing and treating similar injuries:

Even if you have already been to the ER, it’s essential that you have your injuries examined by your family doctor, orthopedic or other appropriate specialist, before you sign a release, because once the document is signed, you are permanently barred from recovering your medical expenses or any additional damages from Greyhound.

Contact Us With Any Questions at 1-888-603-3636 or by email at [email protected]

If you have any questions about our investigation, your rights, or what you should or shouldn’t do moving forward, please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of lawyers at our firm.

We will gladly update you on our investigation and answer any questions you may have (for free).