Bus Accidents

Birmingham, Alabama’s “MAX” transit system is currently facing litigation following a March 4^th incident in which one of their DART buses struck and killed a special needs woman who was crossing the street in a pedestrian crosswalk.

Twenty-five year old Pouneh Bahri was crossing the street at the intersection of 20^th Street and 14^th Avenue South after having attended a cooking class. She was enrolled at the Horizons School, located on Birmingham’s Southside. The school offers programs to educate 18 to 26 year old special needs adults to live independently, and the class that she had just completed was a soup-making class. She had joined a group of her classmates and friends after class and had begun walking the two block distance back to their apartments in a residential complex owned by the school when the incident occurred.

According to Birmingham police, the DART bus driver was 51-year old Alex James Mixon. The police report indicated that Mixon was driving east on 14^th Avenue and had turned left onto 20^th Street without having yielded the right of way to the pedestrian, who was in the crosswalk. Bahri was dragged for half a block before Mixon brought his vehicle to a halt. She was killed almost immediately. According to the police report, though there is no surveillance footage of the accident there were many witnesses, and they saw what took place from a number of different angles and vantage points. All concur that Bahri had been walking within a marked crosswalk and that the lighted indicator had displayed the “WALK” instruction. The driver tested negative for both drugs and alcohol and his cell phone records indicated that he had not made or received any texts or calls during the day of the accident before the accident took place.

According to Executive Director Ann August of the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority, her organization has been cotacted by attorneys representing Ms. Bahri’s family about the accident, and the Birmingham police have turned over their findings to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office. August said, “It is the position of the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority not to comment on the possibility of future and/or pending litigation and/or any possible criminal investigations being conducted by the District Attorney’s office.” She further indicated that the family of Pouneh Bahri is in their prayers and will continue to be in their prayers.

Nine people were injured on Monday morning, March 10th, when a school bus was in a violent collision with a New York City Boro Cab. A surveillance camera mounted on the outside of a nearby building captured the entire scene as onlookers rushed to help the special needs children who were onboard the bus at the time. The accident took place at the intersection of Halsey Street and Marcy Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section.

According to reports, the taxi cab driver was attempting to cross the intersection and had inched the nose of his cab out despite having a red light when the yellow bus barreled through the intersection and struck the side of his vehicle. The cab was sent hurtling through the street and into a light pole while the bus flipped onto its side. There were six children on board the bus in addition to a bus matron and the bus driver. All eight were injured in addition to the driver of the cab. Officials said that all were taken to Kings County Hospital and Woodhull Medical Center for treatment of their injuries.

John Denmark was a witness to the accident, and said, “They were completely hysterical. I mean they were screaming, yelling, jumping around… they had no idea what was going on or how they were going to get out of there.” He and several other witnesses rushed over to help the students, who the New York City Department of Education say were all special needs children who were all nonverbal and autistic.

“Once we got the door open, I just immediately jumped in the bus and just started trying to get people out as fast as possible because I saw blood on the ceiling of the bus, so I didn’t know if that had been a child or if that had been one of the adults.

The students were being transported to two different schools: PS53K@I296K and the Academy for Environmental Leadership. According to residents, there are many accidents at the intersection because people drive too quickly and fail to obey the traffic signal, but this accident was particularly upsetting because it involved children.

Police indicated that they would be issuing a citation against the cab driver for having run a red light.

An accident between a Niagara Frontier Transit Authority bus, a sport utility vehicle and a passenger vehicle has injured ten people and sent several to local hospitals with serious injuries.  The incident took place on a Thursday evening at 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of Williams Road and Niagara Falls Boulevard near the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. According to police, one of the vehicles, a 1999 Volvo carrying three children along with the driver, entered the intersection against a red light and was struck by the bus, which was traveling with the green light. The struck vehicle then hit the sport utility vehicle that had been behind it at the light.

Several ambulances from local hospitals arrived at the scene in order to help the injured. The struck vehicle held three children; one fourteen-year old girl was said to have been seriously injured and was placed in intensive care at Women & Children’s Hospital. The other two children were taken to Women & Children’s and Mount St. Mary Hospital. No information about their current condition has been released at the request of the family. The driver was reported to be fine. The driver and children in the second vehicle were not seriously injured, nor was the bus driver, whose vehicle was empty. A total of four people were transported to area hospitals, while the six other injuries were treated on the scene by emergency responders. All three vehicles involved in the accident were towed from the scene, and the roads were closed for almost two hours to allow investigators to clear and assess the scene and for the injured to be treated.

The road conditions on the scene were too icy to allow the Mercy Flight that was called to fly, and authorities indicated that the weather conditions were likely a factor in the accident.  According to Bergholz Fire Company Chief Mark Stevens, who was on the scene, “They’re very lucky. It could have been a lot more serious. Originally when we first got here all ten people were going and it was more than cuts and bruises, sounded like seat belt lacerations from getting hit, obviously we had to extricate one person so it wasn’t just your normal auto accident.”

The accident investigation is ongoing and no charges were filed at the time of the acci

A near tragedy was averted recently when Coast Guard Academy cadets traveling by bus noticed that the bus driver was driving erratically and jumped into action.  The incident occurred in the very early morning hours, just after midnight. The bus began swerving back and forth across the lanes of Interstate 95 in Connecticut and several cadets noticed that the driver was not fully conscious.

21-year old Coast Guard Academy cadet Ben Lesniak of Butler, Pennsylvania was the first to act. He leapt from his seat and took the wheel while several of his teammates physically removed the driver from his seat. The bus was going 70 miles per hour at the time. Lesniak was able to bring the bus under control and pulled over onto the left lane, where other cadets waved traffic around it until help could arrive.

The cadets are credited with preventing a deadly accident. There were twenty of them on board the bus at the time, returning back to the academy following a hockey game between the academy’s club hockey team and the Merchant Marine Academy team in Kings Point, New York.

According to Lesniak, things had been pretty peaceful onboard the bus and he had been listening to music in his seat near the driver when he took note that one of his teammates was asking the driver whether he was alright.  He jumped up and helped take over as one of his teammates removed the driver’s hands from the wheel. Matters were complicated by the fact that the driver’s foot was still on the accelerator.

The rescue was a true team effort, with 21-year old Cadet Alex Mead of Morristown, New Jersey and many others assisting. The cadets indicated that it took several minutes to bring the bus to a complete stop, with one needing to disengage the cruise control and another searching for the emergency brake. Uncertain as to the location of controls at one point the bus door was inadvertently opened and cadets had to hold on to one another to prevent anybody from falling out.

While many of the cadets took control of the driving, still others attempted to attend to the needs of the driver. There is no information as to the bus driver’s current condition. The cadets will be honored at an awards ceremony at the academy in New London.

Nearly a dozen children and a bus driver were rescued following a near tragedy in Douglas, Kansas when their school bus overturned into a creek.  The driver immediately called 9-1-1 for emergency help while the children climbed out of the bus’ emergency roof hatch and waited for emergency teams to arrive. There are reports that both the driver and one student were taken to the hospital following the accident, which apparently occurred when the driver attempted to drive through water that had flooded the road from the Muddy Creek. The creek had overflowed its banks after heavy rains had fallen in the area.

According to local meteorologist Jerilyn Billings more than three inches had fallen over the previous 24-hour period, and at the time of the accident there were many roads that were still under water. The accident took place at a low-water crossing. The driver was taking the children, who were ages 13 and younger, home after school and had already dropped off approximately half of the children on his route when he crossed the bridge, and apparently the rushing water caused the bus to overturn into the creek.

Investigators indicate that the water on the road was two feet deep at the point where the bus attempted to cross the bridge. The force of the rushing water pushed the wheels into a curb and the bus flipped into the water, where it landed on its side.

Reports indicate that the older children in the bus worked to pry open the emergency hatch and then helped the younger children up to safety. When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, the decision was made that the water in the creek was flowing too quickly for them to utilize rescue boats. Instead lines were used to cross to the bus and the children, where a life jacket was placed on each child before they were pulled to safety on the shore.

The 60-year old driver was in the water for a long time and was hospitalized over concerns of hypothermia, and though one child was taken to the hospital for bumps and bruises and all of the children were cold and wet, none were reported hurt. All of them were returned to their parents the same day.  Children on board the bus reported having felt a bump immediately before the bus overturned into the water.

The 53-year old driver of a Le Bus tour bus, operating near the Utah-Nevada border, was killed when his bus collided with a utility vehicle that had stopped to make a turn.  The driver, Pita Asiata, was the father of Minnesota Vikings running back Matt Asiata.  In addition to the driver, four passengers were reported to have been injured, with one reportedly in critical condition and two with injuries described as serious but not life threatening. A pregnant passenger indicated that she was experiencing contractions and taken in for observation.

The accident occurred on Interstate 80, where the bus was travelling after having left Wendover, Nevada and was heading for Salt Lake City, Utah. Reports indicate that the collision occurred when a utility truck that was being used by a construction crew working on a cable barrier project in the area had slowed down in advance of making a left turn into a center median. It is not clear why the heavy construction vehicle slowed.

When the bus crashed into the back of the vehicle, the driver was impaled on a piece of drilling equipment and suffered “massive chest trauma”. Construction crew members indicated that the truck had its hazard lights on and that the drilling equipment was marked with hazard tape, but the accident is currently under further investigation by the tour bus company, federal investigators, the Utah Highway Patrol and the Utah Department of Transportation.

The bus company, Le Bus, is a division of Rock Springs-Jackson Bus Lines that operates 130 motor coaches. Federal bus accident statistics prepared by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding the company’s safety record indicates that their vehicles have been involved in five crashes in the last two years including this one. No fatalities occurred before this one, and only one of the other crashes involved any injuries.

There are specific requirements regarding the use of hazards and other warning lights for Utah Department of Transportation construction vehicles that are travelling under the speed limit, as this truck apparently was, but because the truck was operated by a contractor it is not clear whether those same requirements apply, and whether the truck was properly equipped.

Matt Asiata, the son of the driver killed in the accident, had been a football player at the University of Utah who was signed by the Vikings for their practice squad in 2011, released, then resigned for the active roster in 2012.

A Virginia school bus driver who blacked out at the wheel while driving a full bus of children reportedly indicated that she was feeling dizzy just moments before her bus crashed and injured herself and 16 children. The accident took place on September 20^th in Loudon County, Virginia.  The bus plowed through a fence and hit a tree after it had run off the road. None of the injuries were considered serious. The children and the driver were taken to Inova Loudoun Hospital.

The driver is a 14-year veteran who was transporting the children to Mountain View Elementary in Purcellville. Parents along the route said that she had been acting strangely immediately prior to the accident. One parent said that she had asked them to watch the bus so that she could go to the bathroom but then never got off the bus. Another parent said that the driver had told her that she was feeling dizzy. When the bus left that stop and turned the corner, the accident occurred.

An investigation by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department revealed that the 64-year old driver had been taking two different prescription medications at the time of the accident; one was an antibiotic.  Because the incident was deemed a medical emergency no charges will be filed against the driver.

A spokesman for the Loudoun County Public Schools indicated that the school district has procedures in place for when a bus driver is not feeling well or is taking medication. Drivers are required by district policy to ask their physician as to whether or not any medication that they are taking could have an impact on their ability to drive. Drivers are also supposed to alert the district if they are feeling sick, in which case a replacement driver and/or medical assistance is provided. It is not known whether the driver had that conversation with her doctor, but no call was placed to the school district in this case.

When the accident took place, a good Samaritan climbed onto the bus and found that the driver was not conscious and was slumped over the wheel. When she came to she was quoted as saying that she had “blacked out”.

The driver has not been behind the wheel of a school bus since that time.

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.