Houston Bus Accident Lawyer

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).

A bus full of passengers was en route to Paul Revere Middle School on the morning of Tuesday, August 26, 2014 when it reportedly slammed into a tree, leaving nearly everyone on board—18 of its 22 passengers—with minor injuries. All injured parties, including the driver of the bus whose identity has not been released to the public, were taken to area hospitals for examination and treatment.

The bus was owned and operated by a private transportation company by the name of Nancy’s Bus Service. The company is said to have failed to register with the state of Texas’ Department of Motor Vehicles as it is required by law to do, and its registration has been lapsed for at least the past five years. The company’s registration was pulled by the DMV in 2009 due to a lack of proper insurance, and has never been reinstated since. Nancy’s Bus Service has also remained uninsured for the past two years. The ID number painted on the bus is reported to have a connection to a bus company operating under a different name, and it is unclear at this time whether this name is a DBA for Nancy’s Bus Service or if there is some sort of fraud involved. Representatives of the company have been contacted, but have refused to comment regarding the incident at this time.

The bus operator reported that the bus experienced some form of mechanical failure that allegedly caused the bus to suddenly swerve to the left and into a tree on the roadside near the intersection of Briar Forest Drive and Tanglewilde Street in Houston, Texas.

The principal of Paul Revere Middle School, Hafedh Azaiez, was contacted regarding the crash, as there was some concern at first that the school had contracted with an unregistered transportation service to provide rides for its students. However, Mr. Azaiez stated that the school has absolutely no ties with Nancy’s Bus Service, and that parents have occasionally been known to use private transit companies to shuttle their children to school when families live beyond the boundaries of district bus routes or otherwise do not qualify for district-run bussing.

Some students on board the bus at the time of the crash reported that the driver behaved strangely just prior to the crash, possibly indicating a medical emergency or ailment of some kind. However, the driver maintains that the crash was caused by a malfunctioning of the bus’ machinery, and has not reported feeling ill or injured prior to the accident.

Brooklyn, New York witnessed a devastating accident on the 19th of September, which claimed more than 3 dozen lives. The Metropolitan Authority bus hit a car at approximately 4:40 am at Albany Avenue and Herkimer Street in the Bedford/Stuyvesant part of the district.

The FDNY has been reported to have said that overall, 41 of the passengers were injured, both of those seated in the bus as well as in the car. The injured were immediately taken to nearby hospitals.

Of the passengers from the bus, approximately 12 were injured while the rest of the 29 suffered from minor injuries, according to authorities. However, thankfully none of these injuries were fatal, thus instilling hope that the injured passengers can recover soon enough.

Many passersby claim that the car was rushing through at a high speed before the impact occurred. Furthermore, a witness recalled that the car was fleeing authorities and even ran through a stop sign. It is then that the car collided with the bus.

The driver of the car was in possession of a gun and started fleeing the scene with the gun when the police drew attention towards the weapon. The car as a result of the crash was completely demolished, and its driver received serious injuries.

Another witness claims that the accident knocked in an entire part of the Camaro. Additionally, the rescue team is reported to have used the ‘jaws of life’ to take the victims out of the debris, such was the devastation created consequent to the car’s collision with the MTA bus.

FDNY Battalion Chief, Mike Breslin claimed that the roof of the car was cut open in order to remove the 2 people in it who had received considerable injuries because of the crash.

The accident is yet to undergo investigation; however under circumstances where the car driver was driving recklessly in order to escape the police, it is likely that the driver will be found to be blame-worthy, considering the catastrophe incurred as a result of the collision.

In order for such accidents to be prevented from occurring in the future, it is imperative that the required authorities step in and improve the high traffic and high rate of breaking the law when it comes to driving in New York. Though no lives have been taken in this accident, some of its victims have been seriously injured, which ought to stand as a deterrent for any further collision taking place in the future at the expense of the driver’s negligence.

In Southern Italy, 39 people were killed and approximately 10 were injured as a result of a destructive bus accident. The incident took place on July 28, 2013 and was recognized by the Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta as a huge tragedy.

The bus jumped off a viaduct as a result of traveling at a high speech, which rendered it uncontrollable. Reports pertaining to the crash claim that the bus was traveling at a high speed and on its way towards colliding with the roadside barriers when it crashed against four or five cars.

The accident took place near Monteforte Irpino, situated east of Naples, where the bus went off the road and crashed into the barriers at the side of the road. Many of the total of 50 passengers on board were children.

The motorway operator, Autostrade per l’Italia stated that the coach was traveling at a high speed in the proximity of traffic that appeared to be moving slowly, despite the fact that this slow speed was indicated on the road.

Alessio Barbarulo, the head of the local fire brigade team further reflected that despite the average barriers constructed on viaducts and bridges being strong enough to prevent such crashes, but it appears that the impact was so overpowering that even these barriers gave in.

Accident proves to be one of the worst in Italy’s history

The bus crash is allegedly one of the country’s worst accidents, and within a span of five days, this accident is the second one to have occurred in Southern Italy. In the former bus crash, 79 people were killed as a result of the derailment of a high speed train in the Spanish pilgrimage town by the name of Santiago de Compostela.

The site of the accident was extremely shocking and tragic, with many bodies covered in white sheets, waiting to be dispatched to hospitals through ambulances, the coach was completely crushed, and there was debris covering the entire scene.

Immediately after the accident, 36 people died at the accident site, while 3 more died after having reached the hospital, as reported by the police. Furthermore, investigation for the cause of the accident is being carried out.

The Minister of Infrastructure Maurizo Lupi claimed that there were no signs of the bus having any technical problems, as it had passed its annual inspection earlier in March. An official of the prosecutor’s office claimed that the investigation would take into account the possibility of manslaughter; however, the driver too was killed in the crash. Local media mentioned the recurrence of road accidents in this area, which should not be overlooked by authorities while carrying out the investigation.

The bus accident took place in San Martin Jilotepeque, approximately 45 miles away from Guatemala City and proved to be nothing less than devastating and shocking. The bus was scheduled to travel from Chilamentago to the region of San Martin Jilotepeque and was found to have contained 36 more passengers than its seat capacity of 90, according to Mario Cruz, on behalf of the fire department. However, the cause of the accident has not been unraveled.

Otto Vielman, the mayor of San Martin Jilotepeque claims that the bus collided against colossal rocks, and this collision resulted in its flight from a cliff. The bus fell off a 100-meter high cliff and landed into a river, situated at the end of a ravine located in the municipality of San Martin Jilotepeque.

Rescue Operation on Hold

In an attempt to rescue the remaining injured passengers and in order to retrieve the bodies of the deceased, rescue operations were conducted. However, these were obstructed because of the presence of a high-speed flow of river water located near the accident site.

Emergency teams set up cables along the river and carried stretchers through the water. Mechanical diggers were also employed in order to lift people across the water. Locals living beside the accident site volunteered to aid the rescue teams in their search and found the sight heart breaking and distressing.

One local resident even said that certain passengers on the bus had been transporting the harvest of their farms to the local market. The injured victims of this destructive incident were placed in local hospitals, and others were transferred to hospitals in Guatemala City.

Guatemalan President Announces Three Days of Mourning

The catastrophic accident is said to have been the worst road accident in Guatemala in 2013; thus, the president issued a notice recognizing 3 days of mourning for the deceased. 40 people died immediately after the occurrence of the accident whilst 3 of the remaining 50 died in the hospitals they were transported to for treatment, as reported by Cecilio Chacaj, a spokesman of the fire department. Amongst the deceased were six children as well.

The government has initiated investigations to find the cause of this accident so that any future catastrophes similar to it can be avoided.  Furthermore, it is recorded that Guatemala has the fifth largest number of road crashes in Latin America, with approximately 20 out of 100,000 people dying as a result of road accidents. Previously in 2008, a similar devastating crash took place within this country, killing 53 people.

A tourist bus crashed into a gorge outside a resort in Kuala Lumpur, killing 37 of its passengers as a result. Rescue operations have been initiated, and authorities claim that they are uncertain regarding the total number of passengers stuck in the gorge, claiming around 53 passengers were traveling on the bus.

The assistant director of Kuala Lumpur’s Rescue Department further admits that the cause of the accident has yet not been unraveled. The spokesman of the fire department added to the details by showing how the bus, actually meant to seat 44 people, was indeed overloaded. The bus was headed back from the Genting Highlands, a strip of small hills a distance of 55 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur. It was then that it slid off the road and crashed into the ravine.

The rescued include sixteen passengers mostly with severe injuries that are being dealt with in various hospitals in Kuala Lumpur. The police are employing trained dogs to help uncover more people stuck in the unforgiving terrain of the gorge with a bus toppled on top of them. Almost 200 firefighters, doctors, and policemen have been employed in the rescue team. The bus driver was also killed in this accident. Furthermore, since access to the area is not possible through the road, ropes and cranes are being used to lift up and identify people.

The accident took place near Malaysia’s most famous casino, which attracts more than 20 million people per year and has been there for the last 42 years. Most of the bodies, at least 32 remain inside the vehicle and have not been identified as yet. Most of the passengers were Malaysians, while a few were visitors from the Middle East and Thailand.

A similar bus accident took place recently near the Genting Highlands. However, it was far less catastrophic than the current one. Two Indian tourists were killed as a result. Furthermore, the number of people killed in this latest accident far exceeds the last great accident, which took place in 2010. In that accident, 28 people were killed in a bus crash near another tourist attraction, the Cameron Highlands.

Genting Highlands receives many domestic and foreign visitors, especially from countries such as China and Singapore. The roads that lead to this resort, i.e. the site of the accident, are both well maintained and safe, and yet such a catastrophic accident could not be prevented. It is now the responsibility of the Malaysian government and the owners of the Genting Highlands to install further safety precautions, minimizing the chance of a similar accident from occurring in the future.

The Director of Transport at Calvert County Public Schools claims that a student was rushed to the emergency room consequent to a bus accident that took place on one of Calvert’s very own school buses. The bus was taking students to the elementary school in Calvert. While it was motionless and reached a stop, the bus got hit at the rear by a car. Immediately, the County Sheriff, the school’s vice principal and Director of Transport Cassidy reached the place where the accident had taken place and tried to resolve the situation.

Soon after, the students who were victims of the accident were assessed by the school nurse and their minor injuries were cared for. The school administration informed the parents of the injured students and sent the students home early. Nevertheless, one of the students was taken to the emergency room in an ambulance, at the consent of his/her parents. Most of the injuries were small; however, the impact on the school children was quite heavy.

Another accident took place on a school bus that was headed towards Appeal and Patuxent Elementary Schools earlier in the same week. The bus was attempting to make a three-point turn between Deadwood and Carlesbard Court at almost 8.54 a.m. on August 28th. There were no injuries as the bus’s side rubbed against a trailer, which was parked. Consequently, the students were transported to their respective schools, as reported by the Sheriff and Cassidy, who undertook the investigation.

Cassidy further revealed that her department, i.e. pertaining to transport services, includes a committee that evaluates every accident by interviewing the driver to confirm the details of the accident with him/her. Similarly, the possibility of revising training activities for drivers will be discussed by Cassidy’s department to prevent such accidents from taking place in the future.

The latest school bus accident involved a bus that was taking 8th grade students from Calverton High School to a school in Huntington. The accident took place at White Plains while the bus was on its way to Colonial Williamsburg on the 28th of August. As a result of the accident, much damage was not done; however, two students and a teacher were found to be mildly injured. They were immediately taken to a hospital, as reported by the police and the school’s administration.

Fortunately, the effects of all three accidents were not that grave. However, their occurrence in just one week is a fact to be concerned about. Something may need to be done in order to avoid a relatively worse accident in the future.

Mohamed Abdul Nasir Sheikh, the owner of the City to City Bus Company, has been charged in court. One of the company’s buses crashed on the Mai-Mahiu-Narok road in Ntulele and killed 42 passengers. Sheikh will be appearing in front of Senior Principal Magistrate Peter Ndwiga, and he has been accused of using a substandard bus to operate his business.

Moreover, he has been indicted for failing to keep records of the drivers in his bus company, and he awaits a fresh charge from a court in Narok.

Sheikh was arrested on Sunday morning following the unfortunate bus accident that proved to be fatal for many of its passengers. As a repercussion of the incident, the police have already taken three buses in its custody that belong to the company.

The arrest came as a consequence of a direct order by Michael Kamau, who is serving as the Transport Cabinet Secretary. He stated that the bus company should be held accountable for the incident, and everyone who was involved in the incident should be given justice. He was also of the view that the government will use this accident as a prime example to make sure that passenger buses that travel at night are discouraged and subsequently banned in order to ensure more traffic safety and prevent such accidents. Most bus accidents take place at night because many bus drivers are not careful of road safety. Kamau believes that these accidents can be prevented.

Furthermore, President Uhuru Kenyatta also made a statement to put the owners and drivers of PSV’s on notice that they would be held responsible in case of any fatalities of their passengers. President Kenyatta warned that any such accidents would be strictly dealt with.

Also, the Inspector General of Police, David Kimaiyo released information regarding traffic police officers who had been implicated because of their possible connections in a Public Service Vehicle bribery cartel. He stated that the case was being investigated, and all those who were a part of this cartel would be brought forth for a hearing if any of the suspected police officers were proven to have taken part in the corruption. This incident has possibly led to lax road safety, which has allowed such accidents to take place, resulting in such high rate of fatalities. The suspected police officers would be dealt according to the stated laws but also face a possible exit from the Police Service if their part in the corruption scandal is exposed.

A casino-bound tour bus met with an accident on Thursday. The accident occurred in Irwindale, California where the bus slipped from the foothill freeway near the San Gabriel freeway, which is about 20 miles on the eastern side of Los Angeles. As reported by the CHP, at least 50 people got hurt in the accident.

The CHP also said that the accident occurred in the eastbound lane of 210 at about 10 a.m. The aerial coverage responded immediately to the accident and reached the place where the accident happened. The firefighters brought along yellow, green, and red colored cloths for the people to distinguish the victims by the severity of their injuries. The red colored cloth indicated the most severely injured people.

A total of fifty-five people were injured in the accident, fifty-two of which were the bus passengers and the additional three people were in other vehicles that were involved in the accident and got hit by the bus.

The people injured in the accident mostly had minor injuries and a very few people had major injuries. The others just got moderately injured. There was no child involved in the accident and only adults that were of ages between 60 to 80 years were injured.

From the injured people, only five remained in the hospital until Thursday night. One of them was an 86-year-old man whose ribs got broken in the accident.

One of the passenger’s sons told NBC4 that before the crash, his mother feared the high speed at which the driver was driving the bus. Steven Zhang said that his mother told him that right before the accident, his mother was talking to the person sitting next to her about the fast speed of the bus, and that’s when the bus crashed. And after the crash she went into a state of shock. She could not remember anything because of the sudden crash.

The Southern California freeway was shut down because of the accident. Because the road was all blocked, the people in the cars took the chance to get out of the cars and witness the injured people going to the hospital on stretchers. A tow vehicle was used to pull the bus from the ditch.

A casino spokesman said that the bus belonged to the Monterey Park’s Da Zhen, which is a Chinese tour bus that offers day trips to casinos in Las Vegas and California, and was heading towards the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino. It was about to reach the casino at 10:30 a.m. on a day trip.

NBC4 found out through investigations that the company had safety violations.

Saul Gomez said that it would not be appropriate to determine any conclusion too early about the how the accident occurred. CHO’s Lt. Mark Garrett will thoroughly investigate the causes of the accident.