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Jacksonville police have cited a school bus driver for causing an accident that sent eight students to the hospital with minor injuries. A check of the driver’s Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) records by station WJXT in Jacksonville revealed that the bus driver has had seven traffic infractions in the past ten years.
According to police, the bus driver turned left into an oncoming pickup truck on Roosevelt Boulevard at about 7:30 a.m. The Durham Bus Services employee has only been driving for the company for a year. According to the Duval County School district, the driver’s previous infractions, which included careless driving, running a stop sign, and driving on the wrong side of the road, were not enough to keep her from being hired to drive a school bus.
This school bus crash in Florida was followed by a second school bus accident the next day in which six students and one adult were treated for minor injuries after a pick up truck struck the bus. Charges are pending against the truck driver.
There have been 48 reported school bus accidents so far this year according to the Duval County School District. Last year there were a total of 152 accidents.
School Bus Safety
The good news, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is that school buses are the safest vehicles on our nation’s roads. However, shouldn’t we be ensuring that the drivers hired to transport our children also have an impeccable history of safe driving? The Jacksonville bus accident lawyers at Farah and Farah will be keeping tabs on future developments in school bus safety to ensure that our children are kept as safe as possible from injury on Florida’s roads and highways.
WTSP-TV has no explanation as to why a commercial Lynx bus crashed into a school bus in Apopka, Thursday morning, October 27, injuring seven people including five students. The accident happened at 8:20 a.m. as the bus was taking students to school. The bus was stopped on Orange Blossom Trail with its lights on to pick up students when the other bus rear-ended it near Neal Seibert Drive and Hermit Smith Road. The five students were taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital while two adults on the Lynx bus also suffered minor injuries and were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center. The Lynx bus driver had to be extricated from the bus, suffered minor injuries, and was hospitalized.
Another school bus had to come to the crash scene and pickup up students who were left behind. The students were reportedly crying, upset, and confused, reported one witness. The Lynx driver has been cited for careless driving.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers report without any visible sign of skid marks, it appears the bus driver didn’t hit the brakes before the crash. He told troopers he didn’t remember what happened.
Ironically, this accident happened as National School Bus Safety Week wraps up. Farah & Farah’s Jacksonville bus accident attorneys know the week serves to recognize the school bus as a relatively safe mode of transportation but also to remind drivers about the laws regarding school buses. When a bus puts out its stop signs, the only time traffic should not stop is if there is a divided highway or barrier. Cars behind the bus still must stop, but those on the opposite side of the barrier may continue.
The laws are designed to cut down on numbers of children, approximately 600, who are killed every year in traffic-pedestrian accidents in the U.S.
Source: http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/217520/19/Officials-say-2-buses-crash-in-central-Florida; http://www.dot.state.fl.us/safety/CTST/safetyKids.shtm; http://www.flhsmv.gov/safetytips/SchoolBusSafety.htm
Both the driver of a school bus and of a motor vehicle were injured when a car rammed into the rear of the stopped school bus in St. Augustine around 8 a.m. on Thursday morning, October 20. No students were injured according to this story by Channel 4, but the bus was pulled over on the right lane of State Road 16 east of Interstate 95 at Inman Road to pick up students. The bus lights were reported to be activated as children boarded the bus.
The driver of the car, a 29-year-old man, said the bright glare of the morning sun made him unable to see the bus and when he did see it at the last minute, the right front of his Honda Accord hit the left rear of the bus and submarined, or dove, under the bumper. The driver’s windshield was flattened and he is fortunate there was no passenger sitting in the front. Both the car driver and the 49-year-old bus driver were taken to Flagler Hospital with minor injuries caused by the Florida bus accident.
How fortunate that no children were injured either inside the bus or among those boarding the bus. From the look of the crash, there seems to have been some speed behind the impact.
The driver has been cited with careless driving.
School Bus Safety
School buses are said to be one of the safest modes of transportation, carrying about 23.5 million children to and from school every year. About six school children die in school bus accidents every year and there are approximately another 17 fatalities among vehicle pedestrian accidents caused by illegally passing the bus. Still, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a school bus is about seven times safer than a motor vehicle because of its weight and the construction of the seats and bus interior that are designed to absorb impact.
Source: http://www.news4jax.com/news/29538137/detail.html; http://www.nhtsa.gov/Vehicle+Safety/Seat+Belts/Seat+Belts+on+School+Buses+–+May+2006
This is a tragic story to report from Jacksonville where a man died when his car rear-ended a Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus, Thursday morning, December 2, at Timuquana Road and Roosevelt Boulevard. Channel 4 reports the driver was not wearing his seat belt and the air bag did not deploy on his 2000 Toyota Corolla. There is no word on how fast the car was driving but the driver hit the windshield and died.
The Florida Highway Patrol reports there were skid marks seen only at the last moment. Eight passengers on the bus were upset and the Florida Highway Patrol reports two were taken to the hospital.
Our condolences are extended to the friends and family of this man for his tragic loss.
Distracted Driving
There is no word in this story whether the driver was texting or on the cell phone but one of the first thing investigators will try to determine is if he was in some way distracted. A look at the cell phone records will answer that question. Other activities that lead to distracted driving can include reaching for something in the back seat, which increases the crash risk 1.4 times higher than for a non-distracted driver, according to researchers at Virginia Tech. Talking or listening to the cell phone increases the crash risk by 1.3 times, and dialing the cell phone increases the risk of a crash or near-crash 2.8 times over a non-distracted driver.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds that inattention may cause up to 68% of rear-end crashes. If you or a loved one has been hit by a driver who wasn’t paying attention, you may be able to be compensated for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Farah & Farah’s Jacksonville auto accident attorneys can help you explore your legal options.
A middle school student from West Pensacola was taken to a local hospital Friday morning, January 29, after a crash involving her school bus. The 12-year-old student suffered minor injuries in the morning crash. She is a student at Jim Bailey Middle School. The crash reportedly occurred near Dog Track Road and Willow Lake Drive just after the bus had just picked up a student heading to Bailey Middle. The bus was hit from behind by a vehicle with 13 students on board.
We wish the best for the injured student and for a quick the recovery, thankfully her injuries were not serious.
Florida School Bus Accident Statistics
More than 2.5 million children attended public school in 2002 and almost 970,000 rode the bus. That same year, there were more than 19,000 school buses in Florida. Despite the large number of busses, there were no fatalities to report on Florida student buses in 2002. From 1998-2002, there were 6 fatalities and 56 injuries in Florida involving school buses and school children.
In that same time period, nationally there were 150 fatalities.
School bus drivers were not cited as being at fault in 69 % percent of the crashes, reports the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Often it is careless drivers who hit school buses. In this case, we are told that the bus was stopped and had its lights activated, but the car behind just failed to stop or even slow down. In this accident the driver was cited for careless driving. Her car actually slid under the rear of the bus, but miraculously she was not hurt.
Personal Injury Concerns
As of August 2004, there were 2,699 school buses in Florida with lap belts which constitute about 14 % of total school buses in the state. But from a personal injury perspective, the two-point lap belts, which fasten across a child’s lower abdomen, have the chance of causing even more injuries to children. Known as “seat belt syndrome” a lower lap belt can cause trauma to the abdominal wall and intra-abdominal bleeding and fracture of the lumbar spine.
Federal safety experts agree that a lap/shoulder belt, also known as a three-point belt, is much safer when used correctly. NHTSA finds that installing the three-point belts would reduce school bus capacity by about 17%, because each child would have to be placed in a single seat and strapped in properly. But it would also save lives in case of an injury and from a personal safety point-of-view; most parents would feel more assured to know their child is as safe as they can be when traveling to and from school. If your child has been injured on a school bus, you may want to consult with an experienced Florida accident attorney to investigate just how it happened, and whether the school district is doing everything it can to make sure your children are safe.
A school bus was involved in a crash with a car Wednesday afternoon, January 20. It happened in the 800 block of Blanding Boulevard after school, around 4:30 p.m. there were students on the bus, but they were all reported to be okay. However, police say there were injuries to people in the car. We are very thankful that no children were hurt in this bus collision in Florida and with the best for a speedy recovery of those inside the vehicle.
Bus Accident Statistics
This story does not provide many details such as what happened and who might be at fault. It is difficult to miss a school bus. But readers of the story provide details, though not confirmed. They say that the car was rear-ended by the driver of a church bus who had applied the brakes and had her turn signal on to turn into a car wash. She was not texting at the time, says the reader.
We do know that Blanding Boulevard in Orange Park is one of the most congested areas of Jacksonville and prone to a large number of crashes.
In Florida, small buses containing seats for 9 to 15 passengers were involved in 424 crashes in the state in 2008, while larger buses with over 15 passengers were involved in 1,946 crashes. Together they result in 30 fatalities.
Seat Belt Requirements in Florida School Buses
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sets the standards for school bus safety, but it is up to states to require seat belts. Six states require seat belts on school buses – California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas. The law is not firmly in place in Louisiana and Texas until the state efforts can be funded. California requires the three-point safety belts or lap/shoulder belts rather than just lap belts.
NHTSA does require seat belts on smaller buses such as this church school bus might have been. Large traditional school buses make up 80 percent of the nation’s fleet of 482,000 school buses.
Personal Injury Liability
An investigator or Orange Park personal injury law firm might want to be involved in this case to determine if the bus driver was at fault or there may have been a vehicle malfunction that did not allow the brakes to work when they were applied. A failure to investigate further may mean that this is an accident that likely will happen again.
Source:http://www.news4jax.com/news/22285636/detail.html
A very sad story out of Connecticut is looking to Florida for answers. Saturday, Jan 9, a school bus crash left a Rocky Hill teen dead and others injured. A junior at the Greater Hartford Academy of Math and Science was heading to a robotics competition with his classmates on a school bus. Suddenly a Volvo station wagon collided with the bus in the early morning. The bus dove down a 20-foot drop alongside I-84. The Volvo was driven by a 16-year-old who was not injured. The junior, also 16, was the only person to die. We are so sorry for the loss of this young man and the injury of his classmates. He is in our prayers.
For years, Connecticut has been debating whether to install seat belts in school buses. At public hearings in 1997 and 2006, the state school transportation association testified against requiring seat belts on school buses arguing they could actually cause injuries.
Seat Belt Requirements in Florida School Buses
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sets the standards for school bus safety, but it is up to states to require seat belts. Six states require seat belts on school buses – California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas. The law is not firmly in place in Louisiana and Texas until the state efforts can be funded. California requires the three-point safety belts or lap/shoulder belts rather than just lap belts.
NHTSA does require seat belts on smaller buses, not the large buses that the teen in the above accident was on, which make up 80 percent of the nation’s fleet of 482,000 schools. Seat belts may be one of many ways to help prevent bus accidents in Florida and throughout the United States, which cause far too many incidents of wrongful death and serious injury to innocent school bus passengers.
Source:http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-rockyhill-seatbelts-0111.artjan11,0,3530032.story
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