Most people who rely on public transportation don’t think twice about their safety before hopping on board a bus, train or ferry. They tend to assume that the driver is a licensed, trained and experienced transit employee, and in many cases, that’s true. But just as when we go behind the wheel ourselves, there’s no absolute guarantee of safety. Inclement weather, another driver or unforeseen circumstances can always cause an accident. And sometimes, unfortunately, the public transit driver does turn out to be at fault.
Such was the case in a recent bus crash in western Pennsylvania. A Greyhound bus traveling to New York on Interstate 90 was carrying 26 passengers when it rear-ended a flatbed truck. From there the bus veered off the side of the highway and came to rest in a ditch.
The driver and 11 passengers were left injured. Because the front of the bus collapsed inward after the impact, the driver was pinned in his seat; it took rescue crews about an hour and a half to extricate him. The passengers who were hurt suffered mostly minor injuries, but all were taken to a local hospital for treatment. The rest of the travelers on the bus were taken to a local church for pickup by another Greyhound bus.
The driver later received a citation for careless driving. It’s not clear whether fatigue or a distraction caused him to crash, but as the person responsible for carrying dozens of passengers, he had a duty to get them to their destination safely.
Even though the injuries the passengers suffered were minor, no visit to the emergency room comes without stress or some kind of expense. Those who were hurt may be wondering who will cover their medical bills and how they should go about holding the driver or Greyhound responsible. A personal injury attorney should be able to help sort out those details and mitigate the complications that arise from a massive accident like this one.
Source : GoErie.com, “Twelve injured in Greyhound bus crash on I-90,” Tim Hahn, Jan. 18, 2013
- Our firm handles a wide range of traffic accidents and other personal injury cases. To learn more about our practice, please visit our Harrisburg car accident page.