Bus Accidents

Highway 60 was the scene of a big crash between big vehicles on the morning of Wednesday, January 7, 2015. Two semi-trucks and a tour bus reportedly collided on the eastbound portion of the freeway near the Seventh Avenue exit, leading to multiple lane closures and the hospitalization of more than a dozen people. The accident is reported as having happened as a result of one semi-truck striking the other, causing that truck to collide into a nearby tour bus.

All injuries resulting from the crash are reported to have been minor. It is not known exactly how many passengers were on board the bus at the time of the accident, but estimates have stated that around 20 people may have been on board the bus when it was hit by the big rig truck. The bus was allegedly en route to a San Diego reservation casino at the time the incident took place. The bus was reportedly owned and operated by Da Zhen Travel, and this is not the first incident the company has been involved in. A 2013 crash in Irwindale resulted in several injuries following what crash investigators described as a sudden and unsafe change in lanes.

Nearly two dozen people are said to have been hurt as a result of the crash on Highway 60, with thirteen of them now being treated for their injuries in area hospitals. Several lanes of the freeway were closed for the rest of the morning, leaving only two lanes for heavy traffic to flow through, but all lanes of traffic were finally reopened in the early afternoon. Traffic was backed up for miles around following the incident. Both big rigs sustained major damages, and the bus was damaged at the front end but did not overturn.

It is not known whether drugs or alcohol may have played a role in the crash, nor is it known whether charges may be filed as a result of the accident. Investigators are continuing to probe into the details of the crash at this time.

A school bus laden with middle school students crashed into a utility pole early in the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014, leaving 11 students and the driver injured. The bus was reportedly attempting to dodge a white SUV that cut right in front of the bus in the school parking lot during early-morning drop off hours at Shue Medill Middle School on Capital Trail in Newark, Delaware. The evasive maneuver resulted in the bus smashing into a light pole. Of the two dozen people on board at the time of the incident, half of them reported injuries, including the driver of the bus, 60-year-old Arlene A. Holden.

The SUV allegedly sped away from the scene of the accident following the near-collision with the bus. The bus itself had driven partially up the utility pole into which it had crashed, causing both front wheels to leave the ground and leaving the bus with moderate damage and the pole with severe damage. Paramedics rushed from fire departments in the area to treat the injured on site and ambulances later transported all injured parties to area hospitals—Ms. Holden to Christiana Hospital, and the students to the Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. No injuries were reported as being life-threatening, and most injuries were described as soft-tissue-related or complaints of back pain.

Holden has been confirmed as having had her seatbelt properly fastened at the time of the crash. The identity of the person driving the white SUV has not been established, and Delaware State Police are continuing to investigate the incident in order to see if that information can be obtained. It is not known whether there is parking lot surveillance footage of the incident, or whether charges will be filed as a result of the crash. All parents of students on board the bus at the time of the crash, both those who were injured and those who did not report injuries, were informed of the incident.

A collision between a truck and a bus in downtown Columbus, Ohio on the morning of Friday, Dec. 12, 2014 has left four people injured and claimed the life of one young person, now identified as 21-year-old Stephanie Fibelkorn. Fibelkorn was fulfilling her last day of internship with the City of Columbus as a student with nearby Ohio State University when the crash took place.

Witnesses reported seeing the truck driving erratically, weaving recklessly in and out of traffic lanes as it traveled with a blown-out tire at high speeds. The truck was a Chevrolet pick-up being driven by 61-year-old Terrance Trent, who allegedly ran a red light at the intersection of Broad Street and High Street before slamming into the bus. Both vehicles skidded on the road and slammed into a group of pedestrians on the street corner. Fibelkorn was one of those pedestrians.

Fibelkorn died on impact, and the remaining pedestrians were transported to an area hospital to be treated for their injuries. Trent’s passenger, a 51-year-old woman by the name of Mamie Adams, was taken to a nearby hospital and was reported to be in critical condition following the accident. Trent himself was reported to be in stable condition at a different hospital. Four students were aboard the bus at the time of the accident, but none of them have reported any injuries.

The investigation as to the cause of the crash continues, and it is not yet known whether drugs or alcohol may have played a role in this crash. Police are attempting to confirm eyewitness accounts of Trent’s reckless driving behavior just prior to the crash, but are unable to report any findings at this time. One witness called 911 after seeing a similar pickup truck smashing into other cars, sideswiping them as it sped along Broad Street. Investigators cannot currently confirm or deny whether this truck was indeed the truck being driven by Terrance Trent—the truck that caused the domino-effect crash that took the life of Stephanie Fibelkorn.

The identities of the two Oakham School students killed in a collision between a bus and a car on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 have been released. Anna Haefeli, 18 years old, and Anastasia Besedovskaya, 17 years old, both lost their lives when the car they were traveling in collided with a bus in Tickencote, Rutland in the United Kingdom. The exact cause of the crash is not yet known.

The two girls were students at a nearby boarding school and were finishing their final year at the institution. The crash occurred on Empingham Lane and led to road closures, but all roadways have since been re-opened. It is not known whether alcohol or drugs may have been a factor in the accident. Several passengers traveling on the bus at the time of the crash have reported minor injuries, as did the driver of the bus. All injured parties are being treated at area hospitals, though all are expected to recover and no other fatalities have occurred as a result of the incident.

Oakham School cancelled events set to take place on Saturday in an effort to pay tribute to the memory of its fallen students. Officials with the school declined to release information regarding the incident to the press, stating that they had been advised by police to keep the details to themselves pending notification of the accident and its tragic results to the girls’ family members. Friends of the two teens flooded social media with memorial commentary.

Police have stated that the bus and car were traveling toward one another on opposite sides of the road when the crash took place. Investigators are pleading with any witnesses to the accident to come forward with their stories, so that they may gain enough information to determine what may have caused the incident.

A car and school bus collided in Minerva, Ohio on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014, leaving three teenagers dead. The driver of the car, now identified as 16-year-old Savannah Russell, allegedly lost control of her vehicle due to poor driving conditions brought on by inclement weather in the area. The other two fatalities were Russell’s passengers, identified as 18-year-old Aliyia Hancock and 19-year-old Storm Angione.

The crash took place on US 30 near the Lippincott Road exit. The Ohio State Highway Patrol continues to investigate the cause of the crash. There is no word on whether factors outside of the rainy weather conditions may have contributed to the crash at this time.

The accident occurred when Russell’s vehicle was traveling west on US 30 and slid out of control, smashing into the Brown Local School Bus—which at the time was traveling eastward—head-on. No students on board the bus at the time of the crash have reported any injuries, though the bus driver did suffer minor injuries and was treated at the scene by first responders.

All three young women were pronounced dead at the scene. The freezing temperatures and constant rain led to the roadway being covered in a sheet of ice, making for harrowing driving conditions. A mixture of lack of driving experience paired with such weather makes for a hazardous combination.

According to statistics released by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, more than 1,000 fatal crashes took place on Ohio roadways in 2012, with more than 72,000 injury crashes happening in the same year. Of all traffic accidents that year, nearly 3,000 of them involved a bus. The same report shows that traffic accidents occurred more often on the weekends than on weekdays. Of all fatal crashes in Ohio in 2012, more than 150 of them took place on roads that were wet from rain, sleet or snowmelt.

An accident involving a Toronto Transit Commission bus early on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014, has left one person dead in its aftermath. The bus was traveling through Etobicoke in western Toronto along Westhumber Boulevard near Kipling Avenue when it struck a car, killing one of the passengers in the car. The bus then allegedly smashed into a light pole and ran over a fire hydrant before veering into a parking lot and crashing headlong into the front of a local bank branch.

Police are investigating the cause of this unfortunate series of events, and one officer has stated that the traffic light may be to blame, though the exact cause remains unknown at this time. Whether the bus or the car ran a red light or the traffic signal was malfunctioning and showed green for both sides of the intersection is not known.

A witness who owns a nearby donut shop has reported that he saw the accident unfold from his store window, and immediately called for help once the bus collided with the front wall of the bank. He stated that he saw the driver of the car slumped over her steering wheel, and that she appeared to be unconscious following the accident.

Six passengers were allegedly on board the bus at the time of these multiple collisions, and more than one of them was taken away on a stretcher via ambulance to nearby Sunnybrook Hospital. Two of the injured parties remain in critical condition at this time. The intersection was shut down in the time following the accident, but all roadways were re-opened to commuters by the afternoon.

Police have made a public plea for witnesses to come forward and share what they saw of the crash, and they are reviewing video footage from both inside the bus itself and from area businesses’ security cameras in an effort to determine what exactly happened to cause the bus to wreak such havoc on and off the roadway. Damage to the bus and car were severe, and the damage to the property the bus struck was also extensive. The exact extent of damage to the bank building is not yet known.

A bus transporting hotel employees hit a big-rig truck that was broken down on the roadside on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, leaving eight people dead and several others injured. More than 40 people were on board the bus at the time of the collision, most of whom were hotel workers who had recently finished their shifts at a resort in the town of Bavaro and were heading home from work. The ages and identities of those who were killed have not been released. It is not yet clear whether the big-rig was blocking the road, nor is it known whether charges will be filed as a result of the collision.

The accident happened near Punta Cana, an area noted for the high volume of tourists that it draws. Punta Cana is located in the east portion of the Dominican Republic. It is not known whether drugs or alcohol played a role in this accident. Traffic accidents such as this one occur with startling regularity in the Dominican Republic, with some hospitals treating as many as 120 of the country’s 11 million inhabitants per day for injuries incurred during a road accident.

Traffic safety is a major concern in the island nation, as citizens are often reported as driving without regard for speed limits or other traffic laws, with many failing to signal when turning or changing lanes, failing to stop at red lights and stop signs, and some even driving against the flow of traffic on the wrong side of the road. Dominican traffic officials say that alcohol is a factor in many of the road accidents that they see.

Traffic-related deaths are the number one killer of males in the Dominican Republic, and according to statistics released by the World Health Organization, 41.7 deaths in the Dominican Republic per 100,000 are due to traffic accidents.

A school bus was involved in a sideswipe accident with a laden semi truck in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 in North Las Vegas, Nevada, causing minor injuries to two students. The driver of the bus, a pregnant woman whose name has not been released, began having labor contractions following the accident, however, no other injuries have been reported as a result of the incident. The driver of the truck was uninjured in the crash.

Nevada Highway Patrol is investigating the accident at this time. Preliminary information seems to indicate that the school bus and semi truck were both turning simultaneously onto a 215 Beltway onramp from Lamb Boulevard in North Las Vegas when the bus took the corner at an improper angle, causing the bus to collide with the truck. The bus was en route to Legacy High School at the time of the accident, and more than 50 passengers were on board. Of those passengers, around half were taken home for the day by parents following the accident, with the remaining students boarding a different bus and going to school as usual. Two of the students were taken to an area hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

The driver of the school bus was transported by ambulance to Centennial Hills Hospital, as she began to feel labor contractions following the accident. There is no word as to what her current condition is, but she was not reported to have sustained any serious injury as a result of the crash. She was at or near full term with her pregnancy when the accident took place, but no word has been released as to whether she delivered her baby following the collision.

The tractor-trailer truck was carrying construction equipment at the time of the accident, including a large forklift, however none of the equipment was reported to be damaged as a result of the crash. Only minor to moderate vehicular damage resulted due to the crash. The westbound onramp where the collision occurred was temporarily closed while officials conducted their preliminary investigation of the crash. No names have been released following the collision, and there is no word at this time as to whether charges will be filed as a result of the accident.

A bus accident left almost a dozen people injured late in the morning of Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014 in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The crash occurred when the bus collided with a large truck, causing injury to both the driver of the bus and several of the passengers on board at the time, as well as considerable front-end damage to the bus. None of the injuries have been reported to be life-threatening, and the injured parties are being treated at an area hospital.

The bus was a Maryland Transit Administration vehicle, a commuter bus transporting people across the city. The accident occurred when a semi truck smashed into the side of the bus near the front door in front of Baltimore’s City Hall building near the intersection of Fayette Street and Guilford Avenue. Damage caused to both vehicles in the crash led to spillage of oil and other hazardous materials, which led to the closure of the roadway until clean-up efforts were completed some two to three hours after the crash took place.

The cause of the accident remains unknown at this time. Witnesses expressed concern over the accident and the possibility of others like it, stating that the downtown area in which the accident took place is a very busy, high-traffic area with a large volume of motor vehicles on the road at any given time. One witness to the crash stated that for this reason, all motorists and pedestrians must remain vigilant at all times when on the roadways.

Urban centers experience a greater number of traffic accidents than their more rural counterparts, possibly due to higher rates of traffic congestion. However, urban crashes are less frequently associated with fatalities than rural crashes. This may be due to roads being better-maintained within the city limits, and typically being less winding and meandering than rural roads, with lower speed limits.

There is no word yet as to whether charges will be filed in this crash, nor has fault been established at this time. Local police are investigating the precise cause of the accident.

A teenager was struck by a school bus while riding his bicycle home from school on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. The crash took place in Northbridge, Mass.—a town located in Worcester county, just southeast of the city of Worcester.

The 15-year-old male was knocked off his bicycle, and the force of the crash caused his shoes to fly off his feet as he was thrown some 40 feet from his bike. He is reported to have not been wearing safety gear (such as a helmet) at the time of the accident, and police who were at the scene of the crash stated that the teen has sustained multiple skull fractures as a result of the accident.

Following the crash, the young man was tended to by nurses from the high school nurses’ office, who ran to the scene of the crash immediately to help out however they could until the ambulance arrived. He was then rushed to a local hospital by ambulance, where he was put into a medically-induced coma while doctors worked to stabilize his condition. He remains in a coma at this time.

The bus that struck the teen had no passengers on board at the time of the accident, as it was on its way to pick up students from a local middle school at the time the collision took place. The driver of the bus, 84-year-old John Dirienzo, a veteran driver who had been driving a school bus for more than a dozen years, reported that he had been driving on Linwood Avenue at a rate of 30 miles per hour when the teen darted out of the local high school’s driveway aboard his bicycle, directly in the path of the bus. Police investigating the crash have stated that the bus driver had no chance to stop the vehicle in order to prevent the crash. Dirienzo was also taken to the hospital following the accident by his supervisors, who noted that he was very shaken by the incident.

Local and state police continue to investigate the exact cause of the accident. Officials have stated that the school bus involved in the accident was equipped with video recording devices, which will aid in determining the details of the crash. Police officers have commended the school nurses on their efforts to provide first aid to the young man as they awaited help from first responders. No charges have been filed as a result of this accident, and the driver of the bus was released after questioning.