When you ride on a bus, you assume that the driver is properly trained and drives cautiously. This is normally the case. The effects of a bus accident can be tragic, however, and can kill or injure many people at once. Bus drivers, like all commercial drivers, are held to a higher safety standard because they pose more of a threat to other motorists as well as their own passengers.
Bus accidents are even more tragic and terrifying when they are school buses. When parents send their children to school or on a trip, the last thing they want to do is worry about their safety the entire time. School buses provide the US with its most popular form of mass transit, carrying approximately 9 million passengers a year—approximately double the number of commercial buses.
According to reports, there have been 1,450 bus accident fatalities since 1990. Most of these accidents occur between the hours of 3 and 4 p.m., when schools are letting out. 45% of all school bus accidents involve front-end impact.
School bus transportation is still relatively safe. In 2003, 45 states did not experience a single school bus accident fatality. However, accidents do happen, and sometimes they are unavoidable. Has your child been injured in a school bus accident?
Wooten Kimbrough, P.A.—Orlando personal injury attorney.