Bus Accidents

At least 24 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in a tragic accident on Saturday, after the bus in which they were travelling plunged off a mountainous pass into a ravine in Northern Pakistan, said authorities.

The accident occurred on Saturday afternoon on the main highway linking Pakistan and China in the mountainous northern area of the country, said officials. Military personnel have confirmed that there were at least 30 people on board the bus, including 25 Pakistani soldiers that were on their way home for their leave, a civilian bus driver and a civilian cleaner.

A senior military official confirmed that 24 people were killed in the accident, on the Karakoram Highway in northern Pakistan. The soldiers were part of a battalion of the Northern Light Infantry, and had been deployed to the beautiful Swat valley near the border with Afghanistan, in the Hindu Kush mountain range. The valley was cleared by Pakistan military of Taliban militants, thought to have originated in Afghanistan, in 2009. Troops have been posted in the region ever since to maintain control of the region. A military official said that all of the soldiers had been granted leave and were en route from Swat to Gilgit, where they would take further transport home.

According to a local administration official speaking on behalf of the military, the Pakistan defence force had dispatched rescue teams to the remote accident site to assist with the survivors and recover the bodies of the deceased. “All those 24 who were killed are Pakistan Army personnel. We have started the rescue operation and called the army to airlift injured and the bodies of the deceased to Rawalpindi,” said deputy commissioner Kohistan Aqal Badshah.

The winding, mountainous passes of the country’s northern districts are known to be treacherous, and the soldiers and civilians working for the military preferred to travel in the region in groups, said the military official. This is one of the highest death tolls for military related deaths in Pakistan in recent years, and is a tragedy for the country, said military personnel.

The cause of the accident is not yet clear, however officials say that it appears the driver suddenly lost control of the bus and plunged off the road into a ravine. The bus rolled down the steep gorge and eventually come to a stop hundreds of feet below the road, said media sources.

At least one person has been killed after a bus carrying a team of lacrosse players from Vermont  was involved in a multi-vehicle accident in Clifton Park, New York.

The bus, which was carrying 40 lacrosse team members from St Michael’s College in Vermont, veered out of control on Interstate 87 on Tuesday afternoon, after another car spun out of control on the wet and slippery highway, crashing into the bus. A third vehicle was also involved in the accident. The bus driver lost control after the collision, and the bus toppled over onto its side on the side of the highway, said local police authorities.

One person was killed outright in the accident. Police have since confirmed that the person who was killed was an occupant of one of the other two cars involved in the accident, and not a passenger on the bus.

The deceased was pronounced dead on the scene, after emergency rescue personnel extracted the body from the wreckage of the car. An occupant of the other cars involved was transported to hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The passengers on board the bus were not injured, but were treated on the scene by first responders for shock, anxiety and minor abrasions.

The accident occurred just before noon on Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 87 near Clifton Park, Saratoga County, approximately 150 miles north of New York City.

The lacrosse team, all men from St Michael’s College, a small private arts school in Colchester, Vermont, were on route to a match in Westchester County, north of New York City.

According to eye witness reports, the bus toppled over and landed on its side on the verge of the highway after it was struck by the sedan car in rainy conditions. The accident scene revealed the mangled remains of a red sedan car in the center of the highway. The southbound lanes of Interstate 87 remained closed for several hours following the accident, leading to major back ups in the region. The bus passengers, all clad in their team uniforms of purple and white, were seen standing on the edge of the highway next to the wreckage of the bus after the accident. They were transported by a school bus to a nearby fire station.

The St Michael’s College lacrosse team will continued with their next scheduled match at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY, on Wednesday.

Town members from Brownstown township in Wayne County, Michigan are drawing together funds to help a local school bus driver after she was involved in a serious bus accident that resulted in both of her legs being amputated.

Lesley Banks-Daniels, 44,  was a bus driver for the Flat Rock school district in Wayne County for many years. She was severely injured in an accident on 21^st February 2013, when she was pinned against a guardrail by a bus at her bus depot.

According to reports from the local police department, Banks-Daniels was working at the district’s bus depot in Flat Rock, at 28639 Division Street, when a bus approaching the depot mounted the curb, pinning her against the guardrail at the depot.

Her legs, which were trapped between the front end of the bus and the guard rail, sustained severe trauma and later had to be amputated. The amputation means the end of Banks-Daniel’s career as a bus driver, and has been extremely difficult for her to come to terms with, according to her friends and family.

In order to help raise funds for Banks-Daniels’ rehabilitation process, the Brownstown community is hosting a fund raising event at Joe’s Prime Time Pub, 27845 Fort St at 3pm on March 23^rd. Events that have been planned include a prize draw, gift basket give aways and raffles with a wide range of prizes. Notably, $1000 worth of tattoos by talented tattoo artists at New Skool Tattoos have been donated as prizes and will be raffled off during the evening. In addition, local band the Hand Grenades will be entertaining the guests with live music from 7pm.

To keep the wolves at bay, a dinner of fine Italian fare including pizza, salad, fresh bread and mostaccioli will be served. Guests are able to bring their own dessert and wine at no extra cost if they so wish.

Entry into the event, including dinner, is $10 per person, with children under 10 years able to enter for free.

Banks-Daniels and her family have extended their gratitude and heartfelt appreciation to the community for the effort put into this fund raising event, and hope that the funds raised can be used to allow Banks-Daniels to regain maximum function and independence following this tragic accident.

It is not yet clear whether Banks-Daniels will be pressing charges against the driver of the bus that struck her.

A woman has been killed on Friday after the Pace bus in which she was travelling hit into a pole in the Fuller Park neighbourhood in the South Side of Chicago, reports NBC Chicago news.

The accident occurred at approximately noon on Friday afternoon. Williams was travelling in a Pace bus on her way home from work, as she did every day, when the bus swerved to avoid a pedestrian. According to eye witness reports, a pedestrian suddenly ran into the traffic on the 4600 block of South Halsted, and ran straight into the path of the oncoming bus, said police Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti, who is investigating the incident. The bus was travelling in the southbound lane at the time.

In order to avoid hitting the pedestrian, the bus driver swerved suddenly, smashing into a light pole on the side of the road. The bus was severely damaged in the accident, and Williams, who was seated in the front row to the left of the driver, was critically injured.

First responders arrived rapidly on the scene and transported Williams and other passengers who were injured to the nearby Stroger Hospital. Despite receiving intensive treatment and resuscitation at the hospital, Williams did not survive her injuries and she was pronounced dead at 1.32 pm in the trauma unit, according to a press release by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The identity of the pedestrian that appeared to have caused the accident has not yet been released, and investigators have not revealed to the media whether the pedestrian is known or has been taken in for questioning.

There was no evidence of drug or alcohol use by the driver in the incident, and police authorities say that it is unlikely that the driver will be charged with reckless driving charges or manslaughter, as he was responding appropriately to the incident at hand in order to avoid the pedestrian. The driver has a good safety record and has been working for Pace for eight years, said a spokesperson from the bus company.

Pace suburban bus service is the main local source of public bus transport within the suburbs surrounding Chicago, and provides an extensive network of bus routes for commuters in the Chicago area. The company has a good safety record, with this being its first fatal accident in the last three years. The company has extended its condolences to the family of Williams.

A deadly bus accident that killed seven people outside Big Bear in February has opened up discussions on the safety of Mexican – run bus companies that are able to sidestep US bus regulations.

In January of this year, the Scapadas Magicas tour bus company, based in Tijuana, Mexico, attempted to evade a regulation inspection by US officials by providing an address of a bus terminal in San Diego that did not exist. Later, two buses were presented to the California Highway Patrol for inspection, where they were found to be in good working order and were cleared for operation by patrol officials.

However, just two and a half weeks after the inspection, another of Scapadas Magicas buses that was not inspected was involved in an accident on Highway 38 in San Bernadino County, while returning from a tourist trip to Big Bear. Seven people were killed. Although the cause of the accident remains under investigation, the accident has opened a discussion on the safety of trans-border bus companies such as Scapadas, which are not subject to stringent US pokie magic safety laws.

Bus safety in the US is overseen by the US Department of Transportation, and in California is under the jurisdiction of the California Highway Patrol. All bus companies that travel through the United States should be subject to the same safety regulations as US based companies, which includes both random roadside stops and inspections as well as annual reviews of the company’s safety records, vehicles maintenance and drivers.

US based companies typically have scheduled inspections at bus yards, where all the vehicles belonging to that operator can be assessed. However, some Mexican based companies are dealt with differently. Scapadas, for example, have their main bus yard in Tijuana, but presented to a CHP station in San Diego for their inspection with two of their buses, rather than having the authorities travel to Mexico to visit their bus yard. Officials were unaware that the company was operating a third bus, and gave the company satisfactory ratings based on the two buses that were inspected and driver records from the operator.

According to authorities, it is not uncommon for bus operators based in other countries to set up a pre-arranged location for inspections to be carried out, and that it is easy for such operators to conceal poorly maintained vehicles. Scapadas Magicas was shut down by authorities one week after the Feb 3 accident, but some may say it is too little, too late.

Two people have been injured in an accident involving a Loudoun County School District school bus and a school utility truck on Monday, said local police authorities.

The accident occurred early on Monday morning, after the school bus had dropped children off at school in Leesburg, Loudoun County in Virginia. From eye witness reports and the initial reports from the preliminary investigation into the accident, it appears that the driver of the school bus was at fault in the accident.

69 year old Ali Saghafi of Leesburg has been driving school buses for the district for several years now, and has a good safety record. Saghafi has been found to be at fault in the accident,  according to the police officers who are investigating the case.

A public information officer for the Loudoun County school district, Wayde Byard, confirmed that it was Bus 377, driver by Mr. Saghafi, that was involved in the accident. The incident occurred just after 7am, when the bus rear ended the utility truck at an intersection between Sycolin Road and Miller Drive SE in the historic town of Leesburg. There were no children on the bus at the time.

The driver of the utility truck was transported to Fairfax Inova Hospital with a minor head injury, where he is receiving treatment. Another occupant of the truck was also injured, and was transported to the Inova Cornwall Emergency Room where he received care for non life-threatening injuries. He has since been released from hospital.

The driver of the school bus did not sustain any injuries. After being questioned, the bus driver was charged with reckless driving and is expected to appear in court later this month to determine the consequences of the charge.

Leesburg is a historic town in the county of Loudoun, Virginia. The town has experienced tremendous growth in the last 30 years, transforming from a small rural comminity into a more urbanised one. With the transformation, has come more traffic and therefore more traffic accidents, such as this one. However, the risk of road traffic accidents in the region remains low. Leesburg authorities and law makers have responded to this accident by putting their trust in the law that the bus driver will receive appropriate consequences if he is indeed found to be guilty of negligence.

“We can just be grateful that no children were on board the school bus at the time of the accident,” said a spokesperson for the school district.

At least 17 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a horrific bus accident on the main Indonesian Island of Java, said officials on Wednesday.

The accident occurred in the Cianjur district of West Java, near Ciloto village, said a police officer from the local police department that is investigating the accident. It appears that the bus smashed into a steep rock face while travelling at high speed. Although no official figures have been released yet, it is thought that over 50 passengers were on board the bus at the time.

A spokesperson for the West Java Police, Sr. Commander Martinus Sitompul, said that the police department could confirm that 17 people have been declared dead, with 23 others transported to Cimacan General Hospital by ambulance. Martinus said that there are no official records of how many people were on the bus at the time of the accident.

The accident occurred just after noon on Wednesday. “It is suspected that the driver lost control of the bus and it rammed into a cliff” said Martinus. Eye witness reports and preliminary results from the accident scene investigation corroborate this report.

According to the head of the Bogor traffic police. Adj. Commander Edwin Affandi, the road on which the accident occurred was closed to traffic some hours following the accident, to allow the victims to be evacuated from the scene and the wreckage of the bus cleared. Traffic coming from the country’s capital of Jakarta on the main stretch of highway pokies no download between Puncak and Bogor were diverted through Jonggol or Sukabumi.

This latest accident comes just 4 days after a tragic accident, also in Cianjur, killed 16 people when a contrainer truck lost control and flipped, hitting into a number of other vehicles in the village of Bangbayang on Saturday, said police.

In this accident, the trailer truck veered into an oncoming lane, where it collided with four motorbikes and two minivans. The truck then hit into a house on the side of the road and flipped over, rolling a number of times before coming to rest on its wheels.

These two tragic accidents have raised concern over road safety in Indonesia, with many bus passengers coming forward to complain that bus drivers drive recklessly on the winding, poorly maintained roads in the region. Calls are coming from the public to the government to make changes to improve the safety of bus transport in the area.

Every year, thousands of bus accidents occur in the United States, many resulting in fatalities. Due to the fact that buses by their nature carry large groups of passengers, often for long distances, the risk of injury and death in a bus accident is high. What factors contribute to bus accidents in the United States? Although initial media reports of such incidents often cite the bus company’s safety record and poor maintenance as the cause for most bus accidents, it is useful to look more closely at some of the latest data on bus accidents in the United States.

An important aspect to note when analyzing the research is that there data concerning fatalities related to bus accidents will include not only occupants of the bus, but also occupants of other vehicles that were involved in the accident, as well as pedestrians. In addition, the data for local buses such as city and school buses is often separated from data for long distance buses such as tour coaches.

A study released by the National Transportation Safety Board in 2011 revealed that approximately 241 million people make journeys on long distance charter and tour buses each year. The study also noted that commercial motor vehicles, such as buses, were more likely to be involved in fatal accidents than privately registered vehicles, however the individual death rate per person in such accidents was higher for passenger cars than for buses, with a bus occupant fatality rate of 45 deaths per 100 000 accidents compared to 251 deaths per 100 000 accidents for passengers in privately owned motor cars.

According to a 2012 study in the Journal of Safety Research, there are a number of factors related to the bus driver that increase the likelihood of the bus being involved in an accident. Young, inexperienced bus drivers were at high risk of causing accidents, however the accident risk also increases in drivers over the age of 65 years. The study also revealed that only a small proportion (4 percent) of bus drivers involved in fatal accidents were charged with offenses such as driving under the influence of alcohol or other mind altering substances, driving while over tired and reckless driving.

The safety of bus transportation has a long history as a political issue, and political debates and legal reforms are often instituted in response to high profile, high fatality accidents. One such reform was the 2011 Motor-coach Enhanced Safety Act, which introduced a number of specific safety improvements in the industry.

Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding an accident in which a bus smashed into an Indian restaurant in Brisbane, Australia on Saturday afternoon. Although the investigation is still in its preliminary stages, police authorities say that it is likely that the bus driver will not face any criminal charges.

It was a shocking scene on Melbourne Street on Saturday afternoon, with the wreckage of a large passenger bus protruding  through the window of West End Indian Restaurant, the Punjabi Palace, surrounded by shattered glass and debris. The Brisbane City Council bus plunged through the window of the restaurant after losing control on a bend in the road, injuring nine people.

According to a spokesman for the national ambulance service, six of the injured were treated at the scene, while three people were transferred to the Mater, Princess Anne and Royal Brisbane hospitals by ambulance for further management. None of the injuries sustained in the accident were life-threatening, and authorities stressed that the injured were transferred to hospital for precautionary reasons. All of the injured have since been released from hospital, including the male bus driver.

Police authorities that are investigating the case say that the bus driver may face fines for the incident, and may have to provide compensation to the restaurant for the damage to property caused. Although still early in the investigation, a police spokesperson has said that generally criminal charges are not filed in incidents such as this one. There was no evidence of alcohol or substance abuse by the driver.

The accident occurred on Saturday afternoon, when the bus was involved in an accident with three other cars before veering off the road and plowing through the window of the popular Indian restaurant. The driver was only person on board the bus at the time, as the bus was out of service.

Fire and emergency rescue crews responded rapidly to the scene of the accident, and the road between Cordelia and Manning Streets was closed while the bus was extracted from the restaurant and the debris cleared from the scene. Eye witness reports show that the bus was travelling southbound in the busy area when it hit into a Subaru, Mercedes and a Lexus before losing control and smashing into the restaurant.

A family from Toowoomba arrived at the restaurant to eat just minutes after the accident occurred and were stunned to see a bus protruding from the window of their favourite eating spot.

The owners of two companies that were involved in a fatal bus crash in Ireland in 2006 in which a 15 year old boy died have gone to court today to start their trial relating to the crash.

The accident, which occurred on the 4 April 2006 in Clara, Co Offaly, left 15 year old Michael White with catastrophic injuries. White died at the accident scene. Now the owners of the Offaly based bus hire company that was leasing the bus, and a Westmeath vehicle testing firm that tested the bus for roadworthiness are being tried with charges related to failure of maintenance of a vehicle, leading to a person’s death.

In the first day of the trial, one of the passengers on the bus gave a statement saying that the bus had been tilting to one side for some time prior to the crash, and that she had warned the driver that something was wrong with the vehicle.  The prosecution’s Senior Counsel, Caroline Biggs, said that the state would provide evidence to show that the responsible parties did not take any action to correct the problems the bus was having, when witnesses noticed that the vehicle was tilting while driving.

As well as the witness statements from students on board the bus at the time of the accident, other students claimed that they heard loud bangs coming from the bus in the weeks leading up to the accident, after the bus had hit a bump in the road.

Stuart Coyne, a student who was sitting next to Michael White on that fateful day, said that the bus was very full on the day of the accident, with some pupils sitting in the aisles.

The owners of O’Reilly Commercials of Ballinalack, Mullingar, a vehicle testing company that failed to take note of defects to the bus when it was tested months before the accident, are facing a number of charges related to the crash.

In addition, Ruairi and Raymond McKeown, the owners of Clara Cabs who were renting the bus to the school, face a number of charges of violations of the 2005 Health and Safety Act that requires bus owners to keep the bus in a well maintained, and safe condition.

All of the accused have pled not guilty to all charges, and are now preparing to defend themselves in court.  The driver of the bus has not been charged.