Bus Carrying Inmates Involved In Accident
The California Highway Patrol has reported that a bus carrying about 36 inmates from San Quentin to Salinas was involved in an accident on the southbound lanes of the Interstate 880.
The reports show that a Chevrolet Camaro, for unknown reasons, hit the bus, which was only nicked as a result of the impact. All prisoners remained inside of the bus during the investigation. The driver of the Chevy Camaro sustained minor injuries. Nobody else was hurt in this accident.
For more details, follow this link for the full article.
Tragic Bus Accident Claims Seven Lives
Multiple news agencies have indicated that an accident that happened in Southern California claimed at least seven people’s lives on Monday.
According to the news agencies covering this tragic accident, the tour bus crashed late Sunday night while traveling on State Route 38. The bus carrying men, women and children from Tijuana, Mexico crashed in the mountains east of Los Angeles. The causes behind this accident are still being investigated, reports show. According to the reports, due to the position in which the vehicle was found, the extrication of the bodies was complicated.
To learn more about this accident, follow this link to read the full article.
Bus Driver Involved In Fatal Accident
According to a series of local news agencies, a bus driver from Ventura was taken into custody of the police after she fatally hit a 75-year-old pedestrian.
The accident happened in Ventura when the bus was traveling from Brookshire Avenue onto Woodland Street. The California Highway Patrol troopers who responded to the scene say that the pedestrian was crossing the street at the sidewalk in a lawful manner, however, the driver failed to stop the bus.
Troopers reported in an official memo that the drivers was under the influence of a controlled substance at the time of the accident.
At this moment, the CHP is investigating the accident. For more details, click here for the full article.
Bus Accident Prompts Cell Phone Ban
Multiple international news outlets have revealed that a bill was recently filed after a bus driver, who was texting and driving, was in an accident injuring at least 8 of his passengers.
Texting or using a hand held device while driving is distracting and can cause accidents that could possibly lead to serious injuries and even fatalities. A section in the bill states that hands free devices are acceptable. The bill includes a steep penalty for being caught since officials decided to compare the offense to drinking while driving.
For more information on this subject, click here.
Pedestrian Bus Accidents Occuring More Frequently
The latest news of a TriMet bus accident that killed two young women and injured three others, sheds light on the increasing rates of bus accidents that injure pedestrians. As a Seattle Personal Injury Lawyer, I have seen an increase in the frequency of bus accidents involving pedestrians over the last few years. In this particular instance, the bus driver struck the pedestrians while making a left-hand turn. Even though the pedestrians had the right-of-way to cross the street, they ended up pinned underneath the Municipal bus.
So far, reports have shown that bus driver Sandy Day was not talking on her cell phone, text messaging, intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, tired or inexperienced. More than likely, the driver had difficulty seeing the pedestrians since it was late at night and they may have been in her blind spot. The father of one of the victims made a statement saying, "These bus drivers just got to pay attention," said Sale. " Too many people are getting in accidents."
Only a week ago, a San Francisco man died after being pinned between two Municipal Railway buses. A Utah woman is luckily to be alive after a turning bus struck her in a crosswalk last summer. She suffered life-threatening injuries, including brain damage, and her life will never be the same again. These tragic stories are becoming all too common. In our firm, Tacoma personal injury lawyers have fought for the rights of many pedestrian victims. Sadly, many of these accidents could have been avoided if bus drivers were more cautious of pedestrians, and if pedestrians were more aware of the dangers presented by buses and their blind spots.
In our opinion, there's many changes that should be implemented to avoid accidents like this from happening in the future. One of the best things we can do is to make buses and other vehicles have a protected left hand turn signal so that they must wait for the green-arrow before turning. Also, passing a law that buses that prevents buses from initiating a right-hand turn on a red light would help. Both of these ideas would keep buses from interfering with pedestrians who have the right-of-way to cross the street on a green light. A simple and inexpensive fix would be to implement signage at crosswalks on bus routes that serve to educate pedestrians of the dangers of turning buses.
California State uses technology that notifies pedestrians when a bus approaches. To avoid accidents resulting from pedestrians stepping into the street to get the attention of approaching buses, many cities are starting to adopt blinking lights that signal to bus drivers that people are waiting. Improving mirror placement on the sides of buses will help drivers to recognize when pedestrians are located in their blind spots. Right convex mirrors allow drivers to view their entire front bumper which alleviates head-on collisions while audible turn signals notify pedestrians when a bus is turning.
At the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard, we hope that when all these ideas are combined, they can drastically reduce the incidence of bus accidents involving pedestrians. While they won't bring back the loved ones that have already been lost, these practices can prevent more people from becoming victims of these horrific accidents in the future.