Bus Accident Lawyer

China is reeling over its latest school bus accident incident, in which eleven preschool children died after their minivan plunged off the road into a pond in Southern China on Monday, said authorities.

According to police officials speaking to the Xinhua news agency in China, the van was carrying 15 children and the driver at the time of the accident. The driver has been arrested and is being detained by police pending an investigation into the accident.

The children, who were all between four and six years old, died after the bus driver appeared to lose control of their bus, veering off the road and plunging into a roadside pond in the province of Jiangxi in the southern region of China. According to authorities, four children survived the accident and sustained minor injuries. The surviving children are currently being treated in local hospitals.

It is not yet clear what caused the accident, however authorities have said that an official investigation will be conducted in the coming weeks. The Chinese State Broadcaster, China Central Television, has stated in a news report that the minivan was speeding and lost control when it was forced to swerve suddenly to avoid striking a stationary vehicle. These reports, however, have not been confirmed by authorities.

A human rights group based in Hong Kong has issued a statement claiming that the minivan was overloaded. According to the group, the van was only certified to carry seven people and was transporting 15 children and two adults at the time of the accident.

In November last year, a similar bus accident killed 18 preschool children while they were being transported to their nursery school in a rural area of China. This accident led to a stream of protests and protests by concerned parents and school authorities, forcing premier Wen Jiabao to put more of the country’s budget into ensuring the safety and upkeep of school buses across the country.

However, despite the added funds, there has been a disturbing trend of similar accidents involving school buses in China, particularly in rural areas. Rural roads in China are notorious for their poor upkeep, and buses and trucks in the region are often badly maintained and even unroadworthy.

One factor that may contribute to the increased rate of fatal school bus accidents is that schools are closing in rural areas and moving to bigger towns and cities, meaning that rural Chinese children have to travel long distances each day to get to school.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSA) has released statistics relating to school bus accidents in the United States in the years 2001 to 2010, in their report on school transportation related crashes. The statistics, while have been painstakingly collected and analysed over the last ten years, will serve as an important baseline with which to compare more recent school bus accident data.

In the document, school transportation related accidents referred to any crash that involved a school bus or another vehicle functioning to transport children to or from school, or activities related to school.

According to the report, of the 363 839 fatal traffic accidents in the United States since 2001, 1236 have been school transportation related crashes. This equates to 0.34% of all fatal traffic accidents in the country.

There have been 1368 people killed in school transport crashes since 2001, equating to an average of 137 fatalities each year. Interestingly, the vast majority of the fatalities (72%) from these accidents were occupants in other vehicles involved, with only 7% of the fatalities being occupants of the school transport vehicles. The remaining 21% of fatalities were pedestrians or cyclists.

123 pedestrians under the age of 19 have been killed in school transport related crashes since 2001. Most of these pedestrians (69%) were hit by school buses, with 26 percent being hit by other vehicles that were involved in a collision with a school transportation vehicle. The most common time of day for a school age pedestrian to be killed were between the hours of 3 and 4 pm. 40% of the school age pedestrians killed between 2001 and 2010 were between the ages of 5 and 7 years.

56% of the school transportation related accidents between 2001 and 2010 involved at least one other vehicle. In accidents in which only the school transportation vehicle was involved, accident types included striking a fixed object, vehicle overturning, collision with a moving object and a person falling from the bus.

The most common initial impact point for school transportation vehicle accidents was the front of the school bus, which was also the impact point most likely to cause fatalities.

The US Department of Transportation hopes to use this data on school transport accidents and fatalities to improve the safety of children travelling to school by increasing regulations related to driver safety and bus maintenance, both of which were shown to play an important role in causing school bus accidents.

20 middle school students have sustained minor injuries after their school bus was involved in a collision with two trucks on Interstate 94 on Wednesday, said authorities.

The accident occurred on the southbound I-94 near Deerfield, just 100 metres south of an off ramp to Deerfield road, said a spokesperson for the Illinois State Police Tollway District. The bus was transporting 43 students of Palombi Middle School in Lake Villa at the time.

At approximately 9.36am, a large truck rear-ended another truck on the highway. The impact caused the second truck to collide with the school bus, said Sergeant Timothy Moore, a member of the Illinois State Police Department. The school bus then veered off the highway and hit into a guard railing. The second truck also knocked a side mirror off another bus, said a spokesman for the Durham School Services.

Other motorists on the Interstate called emergency services, and over a dozen ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the accident. 20 of the 43 children on board were found to have sustained injuries, none of which were life threatening. Six of the injured passengers were transported to Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, while the remaining injured children were taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center and Advocate Lutheran General Hospital to be treated.

The school bus, which was operated by Durham School Services, was transporting seventh grade students of Palombi Middle School to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, where they were going to watch a Chicago Wolves hockey game, said the Superintendent of the Lake Villa School District 41, John Van Pelt. The students that were found to be free of injuries at the scene were transported back to the school in a replacement bus, said a spokesperson for the school district.

Although all of the vehicles involved in the accident remained upright, both trucks and the bus had to be towed from the scene. Neither of the truck drivers was injured in the incident.

According to Moore, an investigation is being conducted into the cause of the accident. He added that there were no signs of alcohol or drug abuse by the truck driver that caused the initial collision, and that it remains to be seen whether charges will be laid against the driver. Eye witness reports and the reports of the school bus driver will also be considered in the investigation, said Moore.

Two of the southbound lanes of the I-94 were closed for several hours following the incident.

At least 26 people have been killed and 15 others injured in a horrific bus accident in Colombia, say officials.

The accident occurred at approximately midnight on Monday night, while the bus was transporting tourists to a coffee fair in the central region of Colombia. The bus was one of a number of vehicles travelling from Bogota to the fair near the city of Cali in convoy. There were 31 passengers on the bus at the time, according to highway police commander Francisco Patino. The Colombia Civil Defense Corps confirmed that the death toll from the accident has reached 26, making it one of the deadliest bus accidents in Colombia’s history.

The bus driver, who survived the accident with minor injuries, said that the brakes failed on the bus, causing the accident. According to a member of the Colombia National Fire Department, Jorge Riobueno, the bus driver attempted to slow down the bus and regain control using the gears after the brakes failed. However, the driver was unable to control the bus which swerved while turning a curve, causing the bus to tip over the guardrail and onto the side of the highway.

Rescue workers who responded to the accident scene worked tirelessly for hours to free injured passengers and the bodies of the deceased from the mangled wreckage of the bus. Television news footage showed debris including shoes, clothing and luggage scattered around an agricultural field at the scene of the crash.

Felipe Ruiz, a passenger who survived the accident, described the moments before the accident from her hospital bed. Ruiz said that she and several other passengers started to pray as the bus careened down a hill and towards the curve. According to other passengers in the party, the bus driver had complained about the brakes of the bus in the first leg of their journey, and had contacted the bus company. However the company had failed to send a replacement bus.

According to Col. Flavio Meza, the chief police officer for the state of Cundinamarca, an investigation into the exact circumstances surrounding the incident is continuing.

Buses are the most common form of public transportation in Colombia, and deadly bus accidents on Colombia’s mountainous roads are common. This accident comes just two weeks after eight people were killed and 11 were injured after their bus flipped over on a highway 200km west of Bogota earlier this month.

Two kindergarten children have been killed and five other children have been injured after the bus in which they were travelling overturned in the East China city of Gaomi, at 4.30 on Friday, said local authorities.

The bus was carrying close to twenty students, who were on their way to a local kindergarten where they attended preschool. The bus ran off the road in the Jiangzhuang township of the Shandong Province on Friday afternoon, said authorities in a press conference on Sunday. Gaomi city’s publicity department issued a number of statements to press about the accident.

The Gaomi police department and local ambulance service were the first responders on the scene, and assessed all of the children at the accident site. Seven children were transported to local hospitals with serious injuries, while the remaining children were released home to their parents after being examined by medical practitioners.

Two of the injured children died in hospital on Sunday. Three other children remain in a critical condition in the high care unit in hospital, said the Gaomi publicity department. The department said that press would be updated on the condition of the children as soon as news was received from the doctors attending to the children.

The bus, which was not appropriately licensed as a school bus, was being used temporarily by the kindergarten to pick up children while their regular bus was being repaired, according to the results of an initial investigation conducted by the local government officials.

The exact cause of the accident is not yet know, however initial reports indicate that heavy rain fall with resultant slippery roads and poor visibility in the area appear to have played a role.

The owner of the bus, as well as a teacher who was on board the bus at the time of the incident and was not injured, have been taken in to police custody for questioning. As the bus was not licensed, litigation may follow.

China is renowned for having a high incidence of bus accidents, many of which involve school children travelling to school. As in many other countries across the globe, school buses do not have to be equipped with safety belts. This latest accident has stirred up a protest from parents who wish to improve safety regulations on school buses in the country, and are calling for the government to institute mandatory seat belts on buses.

13 people have been killed and a further 10 injured, after a passenger bus veered off a cliff and rolled more than 100 metres down a hill in China’s Hsinchu County.

The bus, which had 23 people on board at the time of the accident, was travelling to Qalang Smangus in Hsinchu County overnight when the accident occurred. According to initial reports from the Hsinchu County Fire Bureau, who were the first responders on the scene, the accident occurred at around 3am on Monday morning, on a deserted rural road.

Some of the surviving passengers were able to climb back up the 100 metre high cliff onto the main road where they stopped a car and called for emergency services. According to the Hsinchu County Fire Department, if it were not for these brave survivors, it may have been some time before the bus accident was discovered and the fatality rate may have been much higher.

The Fire Bureau dispatched 16 fire engines to the scene of the accident to rescue the injured passengers and recover the bodies of the victims. In addition, a local Atayal tribe hailing from Qalang Smangus, who lived near the accident site, also assisted in rescue efforts.

Reports from survivors claim that the bus’s engine suddenly stalled while the bus was travelling uphill on the Hsinchu Route 60 highway, causing the bus to slip back down the hill and off the road. Police authorities say that it appears that the bus veered to the side of the road and slowed down to allow another vehicle to pass when the engine stalled.

The passengers were largely alumni from the Tai Shan Elementary School in the province, who were attending a school reunion. All of the passengers were of a similar age, in their 50s and 60s, said a spokesperson for the Directorate General of Highways and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. The bus was on its way from New Taipei City.

The driver of the bus was identified as Dai Tien-shian. He survived the accident but sustained serious head injuries. He is however conscious and will be questioned by the investigating police officers once he has recovered from his injuries, said officials.

According to the fire bureau, this accident is the most serious transport accident ever seen in Qalang Smangus. It is the most fatal bus accident in China since 2006, when a bus accident in Tainan left 22 people dead and 24 injured.

A deaf man has been charged with manslaughter after a man that he pushed into the road was hit by a bus and killed in Dublin last week.

28 year old Eoghan Dudley suffered severe head injuries when he fell under the wheels of a double decker bus in the centre of Dublin after an altercation with 29 year old Edward Connors. Dudley was originally from Dublin’s south side, and lived in the suburb of Rathfarnham. The incident occurred at the junction of Dawson Street and Nassau Street in Dublin city centre.

Dudley was living in a rented apartment in Co Wicklow at the time, and was identified by family members two days after he died.

Connors, who is deaf, was arrested from his temporary residence at a hostel in the north of the city centre in connection with the incident after eye witness reports identified him as having pushed Dudley into the road. Connors said ‘I’m sorry, it was an accident’ at the time of his arrest, and was detained at Pearse Street Garda police station until he was able to be brought before a judge.

Judge David McHugh held a brief hearing with Connors on Monday morning at Dublin District Court. Connors, who arrived at the hearing in a navy tracksuit, made use of a sign language interpreter. When asked who he wanted to represent him in his trial, he presented the business card of a lawyer to the judge. Connors did not apply for bail at the brief hearing.

Detective Garda Conor O Braonain arrested Connors at Judge Darley House, a well known hostel that provides shelter to the homeless, on Saturday night. O Braonain told the judge at the hearing that Connors had been cautioned and did not resist arrest, and was later charged at the Pearse Street station.

Connors solicitor, Cahir O’Higgins, requested that legal aid be made available to his client, as he does not have the means to pay legal fees. Judge McHugh granted this request after receiving proof of Connor’s income level.

O’Higgins also requested that his client receive appropriate medical care while in custody, as he is a recovering drug addict dependent on a methadone prescription. Connor would also need to have access to a sign language interpreter at all times while in custody.

Connors will remain in custody until his next hearing, which is set to take place at Cloverhill District Court on December 13^th.

Ophadell Williams, the driver involved in a deadly bus accident in Bronx last year that killed 15 passengers, was found not guilty on charges of manslaughter in a Bronx court on Friday. Williams was free to leave the court room following the judgment with simply a $500 dollar fine.

The jury’s verdict came as a surprise to many, and survivors and family members of those who died believe the judgment is unjust. Many of the survivors lost limbs and were permanently disabled. A shocked relative of one of the victims, who did not wish to be names, called the judgment an ‘outrage’. ’15 lives were lost and no one is going to pay for it,’ he said.

Williams faced up to 15 years in prison if he was found guilty of all of the 54 charges levelled against him. The 41 year old driver, who hails from Brooklyn, was found guilty of just one charge of aggravated operation of a vehicle without a license.

The March 12, 2011 accident occurred when Williams was driving a World Wide Tours bus from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut to Chinatown on the I-95. Williams was allegedly severely sleep deprived. As the bus was approaching the Bronx, it veered suddenly off the highway, flipping on to its side. Although the prosecution claim that Williams fell asleep, so causing the accident, Williams said that he was forced to swerve after being cut off by a truck.

As well as the 15 fatalities, a further 18 passengers were seriously injured in the accident. One woman was left permanently in a wheelchair, while another man lost both his arms in the crash. The prosecution provided evidence from the bus’s ‘black box’ that showed that Williams did not hit the brakes immediately before the accident, claiming that this suggested that Williams was in fact falling asleep and not trying to avoid another vehicle.

Bus passengers and other witnesses who were driving on the I-95 at the time, say that Williams appeared to be driving erratically, weaving between traffic and rapidly changing lanes. Williams’ attorney said that this behaviour was due to a number of construction sites and speed cameras on the highway at the time. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that driver fatigue was the probable cause of the accident following their investigation, which concluded in June.

Williams, who has been in prison for 15 months while awaiting trial, was taken home to his wife in a private car following the verdict.

Further details of the deadly bus crash at Miami airport that claimed two lives on Saturday have been revealed through the accounts of surviving passengers and emergency rescue officials.

One passenger, a woman who was seated in the second row window seat, had time to save her own life by ducking. The woman told aviation officer Osvaldo Lopez, who was the first responder on the scene, that she saw the 11 foot high bus approach the roof of the eight foot six inch high tunnel and had a second to react by dropping her head into the lap of the woman seated next to her. According to Lopez, if she had remained sitting upright, there would almost certainly have been three casualties rather than two.

Investigators continue to attempt to piece together the moments before and just after the accident, which killed two people and injured more than 30.

In the minutes following the crash, Lopez describes how he saw a middle aged woman seated in the aisle seat in the second row behind the driver. She was having difficulty breathing, and Lopez believed that her back appeared to be broken. Across the aisle from her, a man also seated in the aisle seat appeared to be peacefully sleeping. This man was one of the casualties, Serafin Castillo, who died after his chest was crushed in the accident.

Lopez tried to feel Castillo’s pulse, but soon realised that he was dead. He tried to perform CPR, but the cramped space beneath the wreckage was too small to do so.

The second casualty, Francisco Urena, 57, was trapped underneath the wreckage of the roof and moaning quietly when Lopez arrived on the scene. Urena later died of his injuries in hospital. Many of the other passengers were bleeding and stunned.

It was approximately 7am on Saturday morning when Lopez, who was working on the second floor of the airport building, heard a loud crash. Lopez ran outside and saw the devastated 57 seater bus crushed against the tunnel.

The driver, who was not injured in the accident, was calling emergency services on his cell phone when Lopez arrived. Miami Dade Fire Rescue arrived just five minutes after the first emergency call, and began to rescue the surviving passengers from the windows. The treatment of the injured passengers was complicated by the fact that they were all Jehovah’s witnesses, and therefore could not receive blood transfusions at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Two passengers remain in a critical condition in the hospital.

Five elementary school children and two adult members of staff have been injured after a school bus backed into a school van in the Hatboro-Horsham School District on Tuesday morning.

The accident occurred at around 8.45am, when the school bus rear ended a twelve seater school van that was parked in the Simmons Elementary School parking lot in Babylon Road, when the bus was dropping some children off at the school.

According to school officials, the bus was dropping off children in the school’s drop off area. When the bus pulled into the parking lot, the bus driver failed to stop in time and ran into the back of the school van. Both the school bus and the van belong to the Hatboro-Horsham School District.

There were 24 elementary school students on the bus at the time of the accident, and seven children on board the school van. There was also one staff member on the bus and one staff member in the van at the time, said police officials.

Faculty members at the elementary school called paramedics to the scene, and an ambulance arrived promptly. All the individuals involved in the accident were thoroughly examined by paramedics with the assistance of the school nurse. There were no serious injuries incurred in the accident, however five children and two adults sustained minor injuries and were transported to a local hospital for observation and evaluation, said a school spokesperson.

Apart from some minor scratches and complaints of pain, all of the injured passengers are doing well and are expected to be released from hospital tomorrow.

The principal of Simmons Elementary School, Karen Kanter, extended her gratitude to the Horsham fire and police departments and the paramedic team for their rapid response to the incident. Kanter also thanked the nursing staff at the school, and applauded them for their focus on ensuring the safety and health of the students and staff involved in the accident. ‘We are grateful that no one was seriously injured in this incident,’ said Kanter.

School officials notified the family members of the children who were involved in the crash on Tuesday morning.

Police are currently investigating the cause of the accident. It is not yet clear why the bus driver did not stop before striking the school van, however alcohol and substance abuse does not appear to have been a factor. No charges are expected to be filed against the driver.