One Dead, 22 Hurt in Mojave Desert Bus Accident

We say it in almost every blog, but the lower standard of safety in bus design and enforcement, appears to be responsible for at least one death and 22 injuries in Ludlow, California, on May 17, 2008.

The accident was a one vehicle crash, where the bus tipped on its side. The fatality was a woman who was thrown from the bus. Eight others were seriously injured. The bus is owned by Royal American Tours and Charter of Glendale. For full details on the story, click here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2c2933%2c356509%2c00.html

According to Fox News:

The bus was the only vehicle involved in the wreck on Interstate 40, about 115 miles southwest of Las Vegas, said San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman Tracey Martinez.

"It did not roll over but it did land on its side," she said.

Witnesses said the bus drifted across lanes and into the median, Officer Taj Johnson of the California Highway Patrol said.

While the full investigation hasn't yet been completed, two major areas of inquiry would be whether the woman was wearing a seatbelt and how many hours the bus driver had been driving, before the accident. It is unlikely this woman would have been thrown if she was wearing a seat belt.

This type of accident, with the vehicle just drifting across lanes of travel before leaving the roadway, is highly suspicious of a driver who had fallen asleep.

If in fact no one on board was wearing a seat belt, we are very concerned about the potential for all on board, even those who are not in critical condition for suffering a brain injury. This type of unrestrained motion, with a bus flipping on its side, is guaranteed to have bodies flying in multiple directions. Any time the motion in a motor vehicle accident involves directs and angles that are not straight forward and back, the exposure to brain injury goes up exponentially. Even those who were not seriously injured, should be evaluated daily for potential memory, headache, dizziness or other brain injury symptoms.

Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447

Northern Kentucky School Bus Fatality

It is a bad week for Kentucky truck drivers and school buses. Wednesday a semi-truck driven by a Kentucky man slammed into the back of a school bus in Waldo, Ohio, sending three children and the bus driver to the hospital. Thursday, a 16-year-old was killed near Williamstown, Kentucky when the school bus he was riding in had a collision with a dump truck. For the story from the Lexington Herald Leader on the Ohio crash, click here.

In the Kentucky crash, the dump truck crossed the centerline and struck the bus in the rear of the driver's side. Speed is a potential factor in the Kentucky accident. The dump truck was hauling rock from the Butler Rock Quarry in Granite County, Kentucky. The driver, Fransico Youlfo of Grant County, drives for XXL Trucking, Inc., which is based in West Liberty, Ky. For the story from Northern Kentucky Enquirer on the Kentucky crash, click here.
See also the MSNBC TV report on the crash.

Yellow means caution. Sadly, that cautionary warning wasn't enough for either of these Kentucky truck drivers. But we believe that to protect the children and other passengers on buses, more than just the color of the vehicle has to scream safety. Saving lives requires more than yellow paint.

Ten children were injured in the Kentucky accident. How many of these injuries could have been avoided if the bus had been equipped with the same safety features that are required on automobiles - air bags and seatbelts?

Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447

Bus Accident's and Brain Injury

I am a brain injury lawyer. What does that mean? It means I primarily represent individuals who suffer brain injuries as a result of the wrongful conduct of others. I represent them in lawsuits to recover compensation against the wrongdoers of such conduct. To take a look at what this means in general terms, check out my web pages: http://tbilaw.com and http://subtlebraininjury.com. For more about me and my background, go to http://gordonjohnson.com.

Why is a brain injury lawyer blogging about bus accidents? Because one of the chief culprits in the medical community is how little attention they give to brain injury, and bus accidents have as much potential for brain injury as any civilian catastrophe as imaginable. Let me explain:

First, virtually no one in a bus is ever seat-belted. This is particularly true in school buses and in rental car buses. Second, sometimes people are even standing in buses, especially municipal buses, like on Chicago's CTA. If there is a sudden stop or collision, none of the safety developments that have been created to safeguard occupants in automobiles, will protect the passengers on a bus. Even notice that most bus drivers are now required to fasten their seatbelt before they drive off? Why is no one requiring the same for the passengers?

Let's further examine what we know about safety and contrast that to buses. First, the safest position in a car, is facing straight ahead, seat-belted, with an airbag and a headrest to reduce the whiplash forces in case of a wreck. Each of these elements is important to provide maximum safety. Now, think of a bus.

Facing straight ahead. We know that if an occupant is even looking to the right or the left at the time of a collision, this significantly increases the risk of injury, because it substantially increases rotational acceleration. For more on the biomechanics of brain injury go to http://subtlebraininjury.com/biomechanics1.html Well in a bus, not only are the occupants not necessarily looking straight ahead, they may actually being seated sideways. This is a guarantee that they will be exposed to more force.

Seatbelts. There must be a bus out there somewhere that has seatbelts on it, but it is not a bus I have ever ridden on. In fact, the school bus industry has been fighting the implementation of seatbelts for years. How can we tolerate such idiocy?

Airbags. Without seatbelts, there can be no airbags. Primarily, the seat belt protects the passenger from hitting their head or being thrown from the vehicle. It is the airbag that significantly reduces the whiplash forces to which a person is exposed in a motor vehicle collision. We can't even demand airbags until we can insist that occupants are seated in a position from which they can be protected.

Not Everyone is Seated. Would you let your child stand on the back seat of a car, while you drove down the highway? Not if you were sane, not if you cared about the law and safety. Yet, a child standing on the back seat of a car, is far safer in my opinion, than anyone standing in a bus, or commuter train. Simply falling over in a sudden stop without a collision, is enough to cause a brain injury or concussion. But if the bus collides with something, or worse, rolls over, what is to keep the occupant from being thrown against something, or even outside the vehicle? Anyone thrown outside a vehicle is at far greater risk of injury or death. I could write for pages on this topic, but there is really only one answer as to why this occurs: greed.

What we must have happen for buses to become as safe as cars, is a change in the culture of greed. All bus seats should face forward. All bus seats should have seatbelts. All passengers on buses should be required to be seated. When the all bus seats are full, it is times for another bus. Each of these items will add to the cost of riding buses, and that is the reason they are not implemented. Yet, in a society which puts such a premium on safety on the roads, how can we tolerate allowing greed and profits to take precedence?

Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447