Bus Accidents

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.

In Iredell County, a bus that was carrying army reservists crashed on Friday afternoon. The bus was carrying a total of forty-five soldiers in it. It had the 991st Company of Transportation, which it was taking to the National Guard Armory in Salisbury from Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Justin Furr, a nineteen-year-old army reservist, was one of the people who were in the bus while the accident occurred. The army reservists were going back home after a tough training period of three weeks at Fort McCoy Army Base in Wisconsin.

Justin Furr said that he knew that one day if he was sent to fight overseas, he would definitely have the risk of losing his life because of bullets or because of other explosive devices, but he could never imagine that he would have to risk his life sitting in a bus.

On Friday, the soldiers were all taking a nap in the bus when the bus slipped because of the rain. Furr said that he woke up and saw that the bus was going over the hill. The scene was quite scary.

The bus was driving on a two-lane road when it tried stopping for a car taking a turn to the left. The brake was so hard that the bus slipped and tipped over on the right side of the road. Almost all the windows of that side shattered. Furr was also sitting on the right side, so he fell on the side with the bus and other people. The army reservists in confusion started screaming, shouting, crying, and running and stampeded over Furr.

The bus slid about eight feet down. Furr said that many of the soldiers got their bones broken, and one of them even had a fractured hip. Another soldier has possible damage to his spleen, Furr added.

The N.C. Highway Patrol reported that 15 of the injured soldiers were given treatments on the spot, and the rest (twenty-nine) were taken to hospital.

Master Sgt. Patrick Compton, who is an army spokesman, said that by Saturday, all of the injured soldiers recovered and so were released from the hospital. Only one, whose name is Spc. Rodney McDonalds, was still kept in the hospital at Lake Norman Regional Medical Centre in Mooresville. Compton said that Rodney McDonalds was in better condition now.

Compton also said that McDonalds was slowly recovering, and that his condition was gradually improving. He said that McDonald is sore, but he has his spirits high.

Furr was a mechanic for the Army Reserve. He was working in a Salisbury warehouse for Food Lion as a civilian. Furr did not get any major injuries, but he knew that unlike him, many of his fellow soldiers were not that lucky.

The bus driver, Christopher Reed of Randleman, had a good record of driving, but he still got charged with a traffic infraction. This is because he slammed on the brakes to avoid collision with the car in front of it.

A European bus transport was involved in another major bus accident. In the accident, 39 people got killed and 10 were injured. It was one of the most tragic and awful road accidents in the history of Italy.

Initially it was said by the reporters that the bus was at such a high speed that it hit four or five cars before banging into the roadside barriers. The bus was carrying 50 people, many of which were children.

Sunday night, when this dreadful accident took place was indeed a very saddening night for the people of Italy. Letta canceled all his official and private visits and meetings and showed a deep feeling of grief for the disaster that happened that night. He said it was a huge tragedy and that it was a very sad day for Italy. He had no words to express his grief.

An operator of the motorway made a statement saying that although there were clear signs for keeping a low speed on the motorway, the bus seemed to be moving at a very high speed among the other vehicles in the traffic that were moving at a lower speed.

Alessio Barbarulo, who is head of the division of the local fire brigade that did the rescue operation, said that the impact was so strong that even the tough barriers got broken instead of stopping the accident.

The scenario of the dreadful accident made many hearts cry out loud. All the dead bodies were first covered in white sheets, and then they were lined up on the sides of the roads, after which the ambulances took them away.

As reported by a police official, thirty-six people died immediately on the spot, whereas three more passengers died later in the hospital.

Maurizio Lupi, who is the Infrastructure Minister, declared that there was apparently no technical fault or problem with the bus that might have landed the bus into such a disaster. He says that to discover the main cause of how the accident actually happened would definitely require time. Until then, he said that making any vague possibility or conclusion about the mishap would not be appropriate.

Avillino, the prosecutor’s office official, said that keeping in view that the bus driver died in the crash too, he would also investigate for any other possibilities that might have been the cause of the accident.

The victims in the accident were all Italians who were travelling to the town of Telese Terme or a nearby lake that is famous for fishing.

A bus hits a mountain-side in Tachira, which is a western Venezuelan state, taking the lives of at least nine people on board while injuring up to thirty five people. The accident took place on the seventh of August, 2013 on Tuesday on the highway.

The highway plays the stage for yet another calamity after the mayhem caused by a major accident by a bus and truck collision just last week. Fourteen people died as a result of this accident in the Central State of Guarico. This is yet another major accident with such a great number of victims in the past week in Venezuela. It, however, is a greater and more severe tragedy than the latter.

Shortly after the accident, the state television had a small conversation with the national director of emergency services. Said Director Luis Diaz Curbelo, “We have declared up to thirty five people injured while nine are declared dead for now.”

The tragic incident took place in the Chururu sector somewhere along the Troncal 5 highway, the director said. It took place in Venezuela right in the middle of the vacation season, he added further.

Among those who died was the bus driver himself. According to the director, the investigations into the causes of the bus crash are being carried out as to find out the real reason behind the tragic disaster.  Relevant authorities are looking into the possible reasons that lead to the crash, which caused the loss of the bus driver`s life. The most probable cause for the bus crash however, according to Curbelo was an unexpected failure in mechanics of the vehicle.

“Quite predictably, the driver crashed into the hill as he lost control,” he said.

The bus that was in the accident was owned by Expresos Los Llanos.  It had left Upata, a town located in the Bolivar, the southern state.

Following these calamities, an emergency state was announced on the country’s roads for 90 days. The Venezuelan government said it was “crucial” that measures be taken as soon as possible to improve the structure of the highways of the state which have depreciated in recent years when no heed was paid to the maintenance and care of the roadways. If the matter was ignored further, facing such tragedies every now and then would be inevitable, they said.

A school bus traveling towards the Long Island Aquarium on Wednesday morning met with an accident in Riverhead.

It was reported that nine were injured and sent to hospital. According to the police, none of the injuries were very serious among any of the nine that went to the hospital.

The Riverhead Town police stated that on a fine Wednesday, the accident took place at around 11:22 A.M. The school bus just left a Bronx day camp and was headed to Riverhead when it “hit into the rear of a pickup truck,” is how police described it.

The accident took place around West Main Street’s corner, a little west of the junction with Raynor Avenue. According to police, the GMC pickup, which was stuck in traffic, was stopped eastbound while letting another vehicle turn. Just then a school bus traveling behind the pickup, which is owned by Boro Transport of Brooklyn, failed to stop and crashed into the back of the pickup.

The school bus in the accident was on a field trip to an aquarium on Long Island, and according to the police, had 32 children and nine adults on the bus. Out of the nine that were injured, there were four children with ages between 6 to 12, as well as 4 adults from the bus, the ninth being the bus driver himself. The injured were sent off to the Peconic Bay Medical Center and according to the police all were stated to have “non-life-threatening injuries.”

The Mastic Fire Department, Mattituck Fire Department, along with the Riverhead Town Volunteer Ambulance Corps, the Manorville Fire Department and Wading River Fire Department all volunteered and worked together in transporting the injured.

The bus in the accident was brought in for an inspection after the accident by the Department of Transportation, said the police. The bus driver and the pickup driver were not issued summons. What triggered the terrific response of emergency responders, after the shoulder injury of a child was reported, turned out to be a pretty “minor accident,” as police stated.

The accident scene on Main Street was misreported in the beginning as a huge commotion, because of the presence of all the emergency vehicles and manpower through the East End coming in on the scene to help. Thankfully, it turned out to be just a “minor accident” with “non-life-threatening injuries” to only nine people out of the forty-one people on board.

Early in the morning on July 23, 2013, a double-decker passenger bus collided with a delivery truck and then caught fire on one of Thailand’s busiest and deadliest highways. The accident killed nineteen of the passengers and injured twenty-three others.

Most of the passengers and the driver of the bus were still trapped inside when it suddenly burst into flames. Rescue workers had to work quickly to extinguish the flames and get the remaining passengers off of the bus.

The bus was headed to Bangkok traveling on Mitraphab highway, which is located in the Kaeng Khoi district of the province of Saraburi.

Saraburi is sixty miles north of the city of Bangkok.

According to news reports, the driver of the truck involved in the crash suffered injuries to his head and legs. The truck driver was on his way with a load to a local factory. The truck driver has not yet been identified. Officials believe that he may have dozed off, and that is what caused the collision.

After the crash between the bus and the truck, another accident occurred during the traffic pile up that injured a woman who was a passenger in a car.

The crash has raised major concerns about the safety of roads in the region. The section of road where the accident happened is beautiful, bordered by beaches, but has an extremely high volume of accident-related deaths.

This crash happened a day after a tour bus making its way to Bangkok from Phang-nga province crashed. Twenty-two people were injured in the collision.

In Thailand these types of deadly crashes have become weekly occurrences. Thailand has one of the worst road safety records in the world.

Thailand sees over twenty-two million visitors a year. Because of the large amount of tourists on the roads, road safety is a major concern.

Countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, have actually issued warnings to tourists about the bad road conditions in their countries . The newly released British Foreign & Commonwealth Office annual “British Behavior Abroad” report states, “Thailand has seen a significant increase in hospitalizations and deaths, despite fewer cases worldwide. While acknowledging that an aging population attributed to the increase, road traffic accidents, many involving young people on mopeds.” The report also cites, “serious accidents involving other vehicles including cars, coaches and mini-buses” as being a risk to its citizens. “Many accidents are due to poor vehicle and driver safety standards,” reads the advice.

“In Thailand, a country with 50,000 British residents and over 870,000 British visitors per year, there were 68,582 road traffic incidents resulting in 9,205 deaths involving both Thai residents and tourists in 2011,” says the U.K. government post announcing the new campaign. “In contrast 1,901 people were killed in road accidents in the UK in 2011.”

More than 9,700 people were killed in road accidents in Thailand last year alone.

On July 12, 2013, a man riding his bicycle was struck by an Ohio State University RTA bus. The accident happened on Broadway Avenue, near East 34th Street, in Cleveland, Ohio. The accident happened early Thursday morning.

Both the man on the bike and Bus 15 were traveling north toward downtown Cleveland. The bus attempted to pass the bike when, according to the bus driver, the man on the bike cut in front of the bus.

According to the latest press releases, the Columbus police still have not figured out why the man fell from his bicycle after cutting in front of the bus. He died hours later.

Sixty five year old Raymond E. Hursey of North Linden, Ohio died at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center on June 26. The accident occurred around 1:45 p.m. and Hursey died about three hours later.

According to police reports, Hursey was traveling on his bike south on Summit. He was riding along the side of the bus driven by James B. Glover, 21.

A witness to the accident told authorities that it appeared that Hursey may have struck a parked car, which then caused him to fall under the bus. Hursey was struck by the rear tires of the bus. The bus driver was not injured and to date no charges have been filed.

The director of marketing and communications at Ohio State University, Lindsay M. Komlanc, told local media that James B. Glover has been employed by the universities bus services for about fourteen months and had no prior accidents. He is still employed by Ohio State University.

According to Franklin County Municipal Court records, Raymond Hursey was charged back in January of 2013 with driving under the influence after he was involved in what was called a minor hit-and-run accident on Westerville Road. He was scheduled to be sentenced a week after his death.

This was Cleveland’s second bus-bicycle collision since May. Back on May 22, popular Cleveland chef and local business owner Jonathon Sawyer of The Greenhouse Tavern fame was said to be riding his bike on Euclid Avenue when he was clipped by a RTA bus as they both turned onto East 45th Street. The incident happened around 8:15 a.m.

Sawyer was not injured in the incident. Later in the day he posted on Twitter,  “Wow. Just got hit by an #RTA bus in #CLe, not injured but shaken up. Drivers please check your side.” The story was a media buzz after Sawyer posted the following on his Facebook page, “Today an RTA bus driver who was not obeying traffic laws hit me. This issue is bigger than Jonathon Sawyer or the RTA, it has to do with bike and driver safety. It has to do with raising awareness of drivers, city and it’s citizen. There is an amazing cycling community that has been flourishing here in Cleveland over the past ten years and they deserve to be safe. #sharetheroad”

Ohio laws state that all drivers are required to maintain what is called a ‘safe distance’ from cyclists. The law, however does not state a specific distance. A city ordinance in Cleveland requires that drivers stay a minimum of three feet from cyclists.