Bus accident serves as reminder of why impending new bus safety rules are needed
Last month, a horrific bus accident in northern California claimed the lives of 10 people and injured many more. A FedEx truck crossed a highway median, hit a car, and plowed into a bus carrying 44 students bound for a tour of Humboldt State University. Efforts are ongoing to determine the exact cause of the accident, along with liability for the injuries and deaths.
Representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board are participating in investigation efforts. According to one representative, the most tragic aspect of the accident for his organization is knowing that had his agency’s recommended bus safety regulations been implemented sooner, lives could have been saved. In particular, three areas of bus safety came into play in this accident.
Seat Belts
The first issue is seat belts. For many years, the NTSB pushed for all buses to be equipped with seatbelts, and finally succeeded in making three-point lap-shoulder belts mandatory in all new buses in November of 2016. The bus involved in the accident was built in 2014 and actually did have seat belts, even though they were not technically required by law yet. The NTSB counts this as a victory, but points out that it will take more effort to get passengers to actually use seatbelts on buses.
Emergency Exits
In 1997, a tour bus accident inspired the NTSB to recommend safety standards to make large buses easier to escape from in an emergency. Now, over 15 years later, these standards have not yet been adopted. Fortunately, many of the students in the northern California crash were able to escape the burning bus through emergency exit windows. However, investigators will be carefully assessing the condition of the windows and their labeling to determine if improved emergency exit safety standards could have saved more lives or prevented more injuries.
Fire Safety
The NTSB has recognized fire safety standards as vital for helping to prevent injuries in bus accidents. They have already drafted measures that would help detect and suppress fires originating in bus engines or wheels. These will be considered by government authorities in 2015. However, it is not clear what, if any, improvements could help prevent catastrophic fires caused by collisions.
Even with some excellent bus safety standards in place and others coming down the pike, the possibility of serious injuries in a bus accident is still all too real. However, accident victims may be able to receive compensation if the accident was caused by another party’s recklessness or negligence. At least one family has already brought a wrongful death suit against FedEx following this tragic accident.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident involving a bus, contact expert bus accident attorney Fernando D. Vargas. He can represent you whether you were a passenger in the bus, in another vehicle, on a bicycle, or on foot at the time of the accident.
