On Saturday, April 4th, 2009, yet another bus crash injured dozens and took the life of an innocent passenger near the Sacramento area. All told, counting the bus driver, two dozen people had to be rushed to various local hospitals. Most of the injured had boarded the bus in Reno to get to their jobs at the Resort at Squaw Creek, a Lake Tahoe skiing venue, where many worked as housekeepers, bookkeepers, cooks and dishwashers. The one worker who died, was thrown from the bus and trapped underneath it once it stopped rolling. This 1995 Euro bus was not equipped with seatbelts since they aren’t currently required in this type of vehicle.

Witnesses said that while trying to make a turn on westbound Interstate 80, the driver allegedly failed to brake or even truly turn the wheel. The bus hit a guardrail, rolled down an embankment and then rolled over three or four times. Thorough questioning of the driver had to be delayed since he was hospitalized with his own serious head trauma. http://www.sacbee.com/ Many questions remain since the 66-year-old driver supposedly only had minor offenses listed on his driving record.

At the time of the 8:30 a.m. crash, good weather prevailed. After the bus broke through the guardrail and rolled down the embankment, a Caltrans spokesperson said the bus rolled over several times before landing upright in a ditch. Many of the victims suffered head injuries, broken bones, and cuts and scrapes.

This recent crash is sure to remind many of the one that occurred late last year, during the early evening hours of Monday, October 5, 2008. That accident involved a bus traveling from Sacramento to the Colusa Casino Resort. After seven passengers lost their lives at the scene, three more died at area hospitals that same night. http://www.sfgate.com/ Approximately 38 passengers were taken from the accident scene, located about 60 miles north of Sacramento, to local and regional hospitals. All were jostled rather violently as the bus rolled completely over before landing upright in a ditch.

Rescue workers struggled to identify and help those who were injured in this 2008 incident since so many of them only spoke Lao. It appears that no other vehicles were involved in that accident. Sadly, some wonder whether this 2008 incident was tied to alcohol or substance abuse. The driver had been cited for past speeding violations and had even had his driver’s license suspended for two recent years. Supposedly, the driver had only regained his license less than 12 months prior to this October 2008 accident.

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Since we continue to meet more and more bus and auto crash accident victims in our law offices, we want to remind everyone to learn all they can, ahead of time, about (1) the maintenance records of any bus they’re planning to ride on and (2) those who may be driving them in a bus to a future destination.

If you walk your children to the school bus stop and wait until they’re safely seated before leaving, you may think you’ve done your job. In fact, school buses are almost eight times safer for children than privately driven vehicles. Nevertheless, other accident statistics indicate that we must take a closer look at the school bus safety issue. In its most recent report entitled, “Traffic Safety Facts: 2006 Data,” See the PDF document link at: click here. the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that between 1996 and 2006, there were 1, 387 fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes that were “school transportation-related.” Although about 140 people die in such crashes each year, most of the fatalities involve the passengers in the privately driven cars.

Still, close to nine children riding in school transportation vehicles died each year between 1996 and 2006. Numerous school-age pedestrians, age 19 or younger, have
also lost their lives by coming into contact with school buses. About half of these young pedestrians who died were between the ages of five and seven.

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These statistics clearly indicate that whether we are parents, caregivers, teachers, general pedestrians or drivers, we must provide children with plenty of safety rules and suggestions. Likewise, we must carefully monitor our own driving and walking behavior when we’re near school buses.

The following suggestions are made with all school-age children in mind:

(See this link)

• Remind your children to never push and shove when boarding a bus. They need to walk calmly and carefully, boarding or exiting the bus one at a time. They should always wait for the driver’s signal that they may board or disembark. Also, they should try to arrive at their bus stops at least five minutes early to avoid rushed attempts to board. Once on the bus, children must remember to never engage in any rough play or throw objects at one another.
• Be sure your children use the handrails when boarding or exiting a bus. That way, should another child be pushing or shoving others, they’ll be less likely to fall down. Kids should always wait for the driver to make a complete stop before even thinking about standing up and exiting the bus.
• Children need to be told that the most dangerous areas around a school bus are those just behind the bus and on both sides, closer to the front of the bus. Kids should never step out into the street from between parked cars or from behind nearby bushes since this may further prevent drivers from seeing them in time to stop.
• As tempting as it is to all of us to take shortcuts, remind your children to always cross the street in a crosswalk, if one is available, and at a corner.
• Tell your children to remain seated at all times and to keep their belongings just below them. Putting anything out in the aisle may prove dangerous.
• Remind children to immediately go and tell the driver if they have dropped something near the bus so the driver won’t accidentally hit them when they are bending over to pick it up and out of view. Be sure your kids have backpacks or other items in which they can carry all of their school books, supplies and lunches. Make sure their carry-on items don’t have anything hanging off them that could cause them to get caught in a bus doorway or elsewhere.
• When a school bus stop is located in a particularly dangerous location, ask the school district if it might be moved someplace nearby — perhaps closer to a reputable store, place of worship or other safe gathering place.
• Remind children to never start walking as soon as the driver tells them it’s safe to disembark from the school bus. They must always look for themselves to be sure that there are no cars on the shoulder near the curb or on the street side of the bus.
• Children should walk at least five big steps out in front of the bus, catching the driver’s eye and waiting for his or her signal that it’s safe to cross the street, before they begin to do so. Next, young people should always personally look to both the left and the right to be sure the road is clear of all vehicles before crossing. Children should always keep their eyes on vehicles while still crossing the street. They need to be reminded that just because most drivers are adults, they may still not look carefully for pedestrians because they are often distracted by their passengers, traffic lights, cell phones and other items.

If we will share each of these warnings and explanations with our children, we should be able to dramatically decrease the number of kids who are annually harmed, both as riders and pedestrians, in school bus accidents or fatalities. Having represented many children in California who have been injured in different motor vehicle accidents, we hope you will never to call our offices for possible representation.