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Today in Manchester, Missouri, a minivan collided with the rear of a school bus. The collision was enough to shake the school bus and cause a brief panic, but no one was seriously injured. When paramedics arrived at the scene, they treated several adults. Law enforcement did not indicate that any children were hurt in the accident.
Rear-end accidents are most dangerous when the vehicle doing the rear-ending is larger than the impacted vehicle, which was not the case in this accident. Rear-end accidents are also typically more severe when the at-fault driver was traveling at a high speed. In this bus accident, there were no reports indicating the speed at which the bus or the minivan was driving at the time.
School buses are heavily-regulated commercial, passenger-carrying motor vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has implemented various safety rules that buses must follow for the safety of the children that they transport. School buses are designed to withstand impact and to overall be safer than the average passenger vehicle.
Statistically, school buses are the safest mode of transportation for children traveling to and from school. The least safe way for children to travel is walking, as many drivers are careless, driving while distracted or are exceeding the speed limit on their way to and from work. The size of these buses, the red flashing lights, having trained bus drivers, reinforced sides, and a bright yellow color are all characteristics purposefully designed to be a safer mode of transportation for children.
Thankfully, due to the strong and effective manufacturing of this school bus, the impact from the minivan did not cause much damage. What about bus accidents caused by factors inside the bus itself? Sometimes, bus accidents can be caused by negligent or improperly trained bus drivers, mechanical defects, improper use of safety restraints, and mismanagement of the occupants of the vehicle.
From 2000 to 2009, over 1,000 people were killed in school transportation-related crashes according to the NHTSA. Many of those killed were actually pedestrians hit by school buses. If you or someone you love was involved in an accident with a school bus, you may be entitled to take legal action against the bus driver, the driver’s employer, a school district, or some other party.
Fox Goldblatt & Singer PC is passionate about securing maximum financial compensation for accident victims. School bus drivers and their employers need to be held responsible for adhering to national and state transportation safety standards. When they fail in this duty and people are injured as a result, our St. Louis law firm can step in. To learn more, call a St. Louis personal injury attorney at our firm for a free initial evaluation of your case.