Bus Accident Lawyer

Two people have been killed and three others critically injured after a charter bus carrying members of a church group crashed into a concrete overpass at Miami International Airport on Saturday, said officials.

The bus, which was carrying 32 passengers at the time of the accident, was too large for the roof of the arrivals area at the airport, said airport spokesperson Greg Chin. According to Chin, the bus was higher than the eight foot, six inch high ceiling of the arrivals area. Buses are usually directed to the departures area to drop off passengers, as this area has a higher roof height. The bus was travelling at approximately 20 mph when it hit the overpass on Saturday morning, said Chin.

According to a media release issued by the Miami Police Department, the passengers on the bus were a group ofJehovah’s Witnesses that were heading to a conference in West Palm Beach. The church group hired the bus from a charter company in order to carry them from the airport to the convention.

Further reports reveal that the passengers were members of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sweetwater, Miami.

Shortly after the accident, officials and medical personnel arrived on the scene, where one man who has been identified as 86 year old Serafin Cartillo was declared dead. Another passenger, Francisco Urana, 56, died from his injuries later that day in a local hospital. Both the casualties were local Miami residents.

Three further passengers were seriously injured in the accident. They were transported to local hospitals where they remain in a critical condition, say police authorities. The remaining 27 passengers sustained minor injuries, and were transported to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital to be treated. Three passengers have already been discharged, while 14 others remain in a stable condition in hospital.

According to Detective Alvaro Zabaleta of the Miami-Dade Police Department, most of the injuries sustained were facial fractures caused by the head on impact of the collision.

Mayor of Sweetwater, Manny Marono, has expressed his sadness at the tragic accident and extended his condolences to those affected by the crash.

There are clearly marked signs at the airport warning drivers of large vehicles to avoid passing underneath the concrete overpass. The first sign reads: “High Vehicles STOP. Turn Left”, while the second warns of the maximum height threshold of eight foot, six inches for the arrivals area. The bus driver was unfamiliar with the airport and appeared to have been lost, say authorities.

A Nassau Inter County Express bus smashed into a home in Hempstead, New York on Tuesday night, killing a 6 year old boy who was inside the home and injuring 12 others, said Nassau County Police.

The accident occurred when the bus driver attempted to avoid hitting a pedestrian in the residential area, swerving suddenly off the road and veering into a home. The accident occurred at approximately 9.30 pm on Tuesday night, when the Route N70 Inter County Express bus was travelling along Fulton Avenue in Hempstead.

According to police reports, the 50 year old driver noticed a man standing in the middle of the road. The driver honked his horn a number of times to warn the pedestrian, who is as yet unidentified, However, the man continued to walk towards the bus in the centre of the road. The driver was forced to veer to the right in order to avoid hitting the man, said a police spokesman at the scene of the accident.

The bus veered sharply to the right, striking the pedestrian and hitting the curb before smashing into a home at 505 Fulton Avenue. A six year old boy, David Granados, was sleeping in the front bedroom of the house at the time. The bus caused significant structural damage to the home, and the boy was pinned by debris. Authorities from the Hempstead Police department and fire department extracted the boy from the debris. They performed CPR on the child and transported him to Winthrop University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by hospital staff, said police.

Another child, aged seven years, was also sleeping in the bedroom at the time. He sustained only minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.  The 35 year old pedestrian also sustained minor injuries and was admitted to hospital.

There were 11 people on the bus at the time of the accident, 8 of whom sustained minor injuries and are currently being treated in local hospitals. Their conditions are not currently known.

Police officials are currently investigating the incident, however initial reports suggest that there was no criminal behaviour and it is unlikely that the driver will be charged for homicide. Initial investigation findings show that the driver was not under the influence of alcohol and was not driving recklessly. Police will be questioning the 35 year old pedestrian who was the cause of the accident once he has recovered from his injuries.

Members of transport workers unions in Hong Kong have called on lawmakers to examine the causes of last week’s fatal bus accident that killed two top international chefs and a taxi driver in Shau Kei Wan last week.

Union representatives, speaking at a legislative council panel on Tuesday morning, urged lawmakers to not only focus on the driver’s health, which was initially thought to be the cause of the accident, but also on other factors that may have played a role in order to better understand the pressures placed on professional drivers. The union representatives particularly stressed that factors outside of the driver’s control, such as poor road conditions, may play a role in accidents involving public transport vehicles.

Two double decker buses collided and crashed into a taxi in last week’s accident, killing all three people in the taxi and injuring more than 50. The taxi passengers were 30 year old Swede Carl Lindgren and 34 year old Briton Jorge Herrena, who were both top chefs at celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s world renowned British restaurant, the Fat Duck.

Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, the Hong Kong Transport and Housing chief, extended his condolences to the victims of the accidents and their families, saying that he was deeply saddened by the incident.

A representative from the Kowloon Motor Bus branch of the Motor Transport General Union, Cheng Wai-kwan, said that paying stricter attention to the health status of professional drivers following an accidnet may place additional pressure on the drivers, and that other factors should also be considered. According to another speaker, Cheung Tsz-kei of the Long Win Bus branch, the health checks for drivers are already restrictive, and some drivers have been forced to leave their jobs even though they have no serious illnesses that could jeopardise their passengers.

Although initial reports indicate that the driver of last week’s accident may have experienced a medical condition that lead to the accident, union members note that in most bus accidents, the driver is declared healthy by medical staff and other factors come into play. Union members therefore urged lawmakers to look into the poor road conditions and congestion in the city, that they believe puts added pressure on drivers. In addition, the unions recommend better enforcement of guidelines around the working hours for bus drivers.

Current guidelines in Hong Kong recommend a maximum working day of 14 hours with at least 10 hours break between successive working days.

Grammy award winning jazz musician Marcus Miller was injured and a bus driver killed when their tour bus crashed while Miller and his band were touring through Switzerland.

10 members of Miller’s band were also injured in the accident. According to police reports, the tour bus was travelling around a bend on the A2 motorway in Switzerland when it topped over. No other vehicles were involved in the accident.

Emergency medical personnel and fire and rescue officials arrived promptly at the scene of the accident. Unfortunately, however, the bus driver died of his injuries at the scene. The substitute driver, Miller himself and 10 members of the Marcus Miller Band were injured in the accident. However, according to authorities, none of the injuries are life-threatening. Police spokesperson Karl Egli said that 11 people were transported from the site of the accident to local hospitals where they are being treated for minor injuries. Egli had no further information on the status of the injured musicians.

The 53 year old jazz musician, who hails from New York City, is best known as a bassist. However he also plays the clarinet and the keyboard. Miller has played with well known artists such as Eric Clapton, Jay-Z and Miles Davis. He won a Grammy Award for best rhythm and blues song in 1991 after co-writing the Luther Vandross hit single Power of Love / Love Power. In 2001, Miller nabbed a second Grammy for his album M2, which won the best contemporary jazz album award.

The accident happened on Sunday afternoon in central Switzerland, near the town of Schattdorf. The band were on their way from Monaco to the town of Hengelo in the Netherlands. Hengelo was set to be the next stop on the band’s European tour to promote Miller’s new album, Renaissance. The band has not yet announced whether they will continue with their tour, however a spokesperson for the band said that the Hengelo show will more than likely be cancelled as the band members are still recovering from the incident.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, and details surrounding the accident remain scarce. Swiss police will be launching an investigation into the incident later this week, and encourage eye witnesses to come forward with any information about the accident. This is the second bus accident in this region of Switzerland this year. A bus crash claimed the lives of several adults and children on their way back from a ski trip in Belgium earlier this year.

One person has been killed and nine others injured in a bus accident on Tuesday after a pickup truck veered into the wrong lane on an interstate in rural Arkansas colliding head on with a bus, said authorities.

Following the collision, the pick up truck burst into flames. Emergency responders arrived shortly after the incident to put out the fire, and the driver of the pick up was declared dead on the scene. According to officials, it is not yet clear whether the driver died in the initial impact of the collision or during the fire that followed.

The accident occurred on Interstate 10 in Casa Grande, a rural area in Arizona about 50 miles south of Phoenix, at around 2.15pm. Authorities from the Arizona Department of Public Safety have officially identified the deceased as Francis Wilkens Gibson Jr., a 78 year old man from Casa Grande. According to the Casa Grande Dispatch, Gibson was a teacher at Evergreen Elementary School until he retired in 1993. The exact circumstances surrounding the accident remain unclear and authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.

According to Department of Public Safety Captain, Brian Preston, investigators will determine whether alcohol or drugs played a role in the incident.

There were 15 passengers on the bus at the time of the crash, nine of which were injured. None of the injuries sustained were life-threatening, however. Two passengers were air lifted to Casa Grande Regional Medical Hospital for treatment, while a further seven were transported to the hospital by road in ambulances. Four passengers, all Mexican residents, remain hospitalised.

The charter bus that was involved in the accident was owned by TBC Connexion and was en route from Mexico to Phoenix. The bus driver, identified as Leonardo Leyva, 46, from Ariz, was not injured in the accident, said Preston.

DPS authorities say that they received two 911 calls about the pick up truck travelling the wrong way on Interstate 10 a few minutes before the crash, and DPS officials were already responding to these calls when the collision occurred, said Bart Graves, a spokesperson for the DPS.

The westbound lanes of the Interstate were closed for hours following the incident while state employees worked to clear the road of the wreckage. Traffic was backed up for hours until the lane was re-opened on Tuesday evening. The wreckage of the bus has not yet been removed from the scene.

Two of the senior chefs from Heston Blumenthal’s famous restaurant, the Fat Duck, have been killed in a horrific bus crash while travelling in Hong Kong.

According to media reports and statements from the Hong Kong Police Force, the two men who were killed have been identified as Ivan Aranto Herrera Jorge, 34, from England, and Carl Magnus Lindgren, 30, from Sweden. The driver of the taxi in which the chefs were riding was also killed.

According to The Standard newspaper, Heston Blumenthal who was also in Hong Kong at the time, identified the bodies of his two top chefs. A photograph of Blumenthal being escorted by Hong Kong police was published in the newspaper on Wednesday.

The collision occurred on Monday morning, when a bus that was travelling downhill at full speed appeared to lose control and veer into the adjacent lane, smashing into two cars and crushing the taxi in which the chefs were travelling into another bus.

As well the three people killed in the taxi, 56 other people were injured, including bus passengers and drivers and the passengers in the other cars that the bus collided into.

The bus driver that appeared to be responsible for the accident was arrested on charges of dangerous driving. He has now been released on bail of HK $5000, according to police reports. The head of the bus company that was operating the bus, New World First Bus, claimed that video recordings from inside the bus show that the bus driver in fact fainted, causing the bus to veer out of control.

The company further said that the bus driver, who has not yet been named, had been driving for the company since 1998 and had a good safety record.

Both chefs were staying as guests at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong. The hotel’s communication director, Nina Colls, extended the hotel’s condolences to the chef’s families.

The news of the chefs’ deaths was met with sadness and regret in the culinary community. Chefs across the world, including such well known names as Thomas Keller and Raymond Blanc, extended words of sympathy and sadness on Twitter.

Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, the Fat Duck, is one of the world’s most visited restaurants and has achieved the top culinary honor of three Michelin stars. The restaurant is known for its quirky and unusual molecular cooking. Lindgren and Jorge were both senior members of Blumenthal’s culinary team.

The death toll of a horrific school bus crash in Egypt has officially been raised to 51, after a child died in hospital this morning. 50 children between the ages of four and six  years old, as well as the school bus driver, have been killed after their school bus was hit by a train on Saturday in the central portion of Egypt, said local authorities.

According to the governor of the province, it appears that the person who was in charge of operating the crossing that blocked off the road when a train was approaching was asleep at the time of the incident. The man has been arrested and will be charged with negligence and possibly man slaughter.

The Egyptian minister of transport has resigned in the aftermath of the accident, which happened near Manfalut, a city 350km south of the country’s capital, Cairo. It now appears that the head of the railway authority has also handed in his resignation.

The president of Egypt, Mohammed Mursi, has encouraged his cabinet ministers to extend their support to the family members of all the children who were killed in the accident, said the state news agency.

According to eye witness reports, the crossing barriers were wide open at the time of the accident, and the bus began to cross the tracks when a train coming along the track at high speed smashed into the bus. The train then pushed the bus about 1 km along the track before coming to a stop. Doctor Mohamed Samir, who treated some of the dozen or so injured at the scene, told Reuters news agency that the crossing was obvious not being operated.

As well as those killed, more than a dozen children were injured, many of whom have severed limbs and other critical injuries. They are currently being treated in two local hospitals.

Egyptian roads and railways have long been known for their poor safety record. It is thought that approximately 8000 people die on the country’s roads each year, in accidents largely caused by driver error, poorly maintained roads and negligence.

Devastated family members gathered at the site of the accident and searched for remains of their children on the train tracks, reported the Associated Press. The accident has led to a wave of anger against the new government, with protestors claiming that the government is not delivering on its promises of improved conditions and basic human rights following last year’s bloody uprising.

At least 13 people have been injured after a passenger bus veered off the road and plunged down an embankment near Biggar in South Lanarkshire.

The accident occurred at approximately 8.30 pm on Wednesday evening, when the 30 seater coach owned by a Dumfries partner company, McEwans left the road and fell 20 feet down an embankment. According to a spokesperson for the Stratchclyde fire department, the bus was in a perilous position halfway up the embankment when the emergency services arrived to rescue the injured.

There were 13 people on the bus at the time of the incident, including the bus driver. All sustained minor injuries.

Of the 13 people who were injured, six were treated at the scene and cleared to go home, while a further seven were transported to local hospitals. A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service said that they transported the injured to Wishaw General and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. According to hospital officials, none of the injuries sustained in the accident were life-threatening and it is thought that most of the injured will be released from hospital today.

Due to the dangerous position of the bus after the accident, emergency personnel including the fire department and paramedics had to be assisted by a specialized rescue team to free the victims from the wreckage and stabilize the position of the bus wreckage.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue officials released a statement on Thursday morning saying that the swift response and coordinated rescue effort of those involved at the accident scene played a crucial role in ensuring that the injured passengers received optimal care and prevented further damage from occurring. All of the passengers from the bus were rescued from the wreckage within an hour.

“Crews worked in extreme conditions to stabilize the bus, make the situation safe and assess the casualties,” said the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue spokesperson. The injured were taken care of at the accident scene by paramedics from the Scottish Ambulance Service and those who were in need of further treatment were transported to hospital rapidly.

The cause of the accident is not yet clear. Police officials said that they will be conducting a thorough investigation into the incident and are expected to interview the bus driver and several passengers once they have been released from hospital. The results of the investigation into the accident are expected to take several weeks, said police.

At least 20 commuters were injured on Monday after a transit bus carrying commuters from New Jersey was tail-ended by a Martz Trailways bus at the entrance of Lincoln Tunnel.

The accident, which occurred in the morning rush hour, resulted in Lincoln Tunnel being closed until after 10.30 am, causing serious delays and leaving thousands of commuters stranded. According to some commuters, the usual two hour commute ended up taking more than five hours due to the delays.

At least 20 commuters were transported to hospitals in the area where they were treated for minor injuries. According to Michael Jordan, Martz Trailways corporate director of safety, none of the injured sustained were life threatening, and most of the commuters have already been released from hospital. ‘We are very grateful for that,’ said Jordan.

The Martz Trailways bus involved the accident was en route to New York City from Tobyhanna. According to Jordan, the bus departed from Tobyhanna at 5.15am and picked up passengers in Mount Pocono around 20 minutes later. The 55 seater bus was carrying approximately 30 passengers at the time of the incident, which occurred at approximately 7.15am in the express bus lane of New Jersey Route 495, as it entered the Lincoln Tunnel.

Both buses involved in the accident were unable to continue operations following the incident, and had to be towed from the scene for repairs. According to the Jersey Journal, two passengers were seriously injured, and a further three were removed from the scene on stretchers but were later cleared of any serious injuries. The driver of the Martz Trailways bus was among the injured.

Jordan did not comment further on the circumstances surrounding the incident, and local police authorities and transport officials are currently conducting a thorough investigation into the accident, in collaboration with Jordan and other personnel from Martz Trailways.

Martz Trailways runs scores of buses from the Poconos into New York City each day. The last report of an accident involving a Martz Trailways bus was in March 2011, when a pedestrian was killed after a Martz Bus crashed into a stationary vehicle, pushing the vehicle into a bystander.

A second accident at the Lincoln Tunnel on Monday afternoon further delayed traffic. According to the Port Authority of New York, eight vehicles piled up in an accident in the outbound tube of the Lincoln Tunnel at around 12.30pm on Monday, causing the outbound north tube to be closed for several hours.

The driver of a bus that was involved in an accident in Virginia last year, killing four people and injuring scores more, has been convicted on four felony counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Kin Yiu Cheung, the driver of the bus, was found guilty on all four counts of manslaughter as his trail concluded today in the Caroline County Court. Judge Joseph Ellis found Yiu Cheung’s conduct to be ‘gross and wanton’, with his driving so negligent that the judge had no choice but to convict him of manslaughter.

Testimonies from 15 witnesses called upon by the Caroline County prosecutors in the trial played a crucial role in the judgement, particularly the accounts of a number of passengers who were on board the Sky Express bus when the accident occurred. The bus was travelling from Greensboro, North Carolina, to New York City in May 2011.

According to the passengers, Yiu Cheung was driving erratically and recklessly. They described him repeatedly speeding up and them slamming on brakes, weaving through traffic and coming dangerously close to other vehicles on the Interstate. While the bus was travelling near Richmond on the Interstate 95, the bus veered off the road at high speed, hitting an embankment and overturning, coming to rest on its side.

One passenger, Andrew Jennings, said in his testimony that the experience was ‘like a nightmare’. He says he is haunted by the images of people screaming, the bus flipped over, and being trapped inside the wreckage of the vehicle.

According to a local state trooper who also testified on behalf of the prosecution, Cheung admitted that he had most likely fallen asleep behind the wheel and lost control of the vehicle.

Another witness, Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer, said that Cheung had a legal obligation to take care of the passengers on his bus, and his erratic driving was a clear violation of this obligation. Spencer’s testimony also placed a crucial role in the case.

Cheung’s legal team, however, said that the bus accident was just that – a ‘horrendous accident’, and that all drivers make occasional errors on the road. His defense centred on the fact that although Cheung may have lost control of the bus, it did not amount to criminal negligence.

Cheung will have to return to court for his sentencing on January 23^rd next year. He may be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison on the four charges of manslaughter.