A still-unexplained bus crash last month left a motorist dead and more than two dozen people injured. Most of those hurt were aboard the bus, but two occupants of another vehicle were also hospitalized after firefighters cut them free from their mangled car. A California Highway Patrol team will continue to investigate the crash.
Midday, Dry Road Crash
The February 27 crash happened in Kramer, a small town about a two-hour drive north of Los Angeles. The bus was about halfway through a run from Fresno to Las Vegas when, for reasons still not clear, it drifted out of its lane and struck two cars moving in the opposite direction nearly head-on. Both cars were completely wrecked and one ended on its side. The bus itself, a small charter with twenty-six people on board, rolled and came to rest right-side-up. Nine of the twenty-six people transported to hospitals were reported to be in critical condition.
This happened around noon on a Monday on a relatively remote stretch of state highway, and there has been no word on possible contributing factors. But high winds prevented rescuers from transporting several of the victims by helicopter.
Safe but Not Risk-Free
Serious bus crashes are uncommon, but they often play out similarly to the Kramer crash. Although this was a smaller bus (actually a conversion van) and many of the passengers were injured because the vehicle rolled, it’s more common for those who are seriously injured or killed to be in another vehicle in the crash—not the bus.
In 2015, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which monitors the safety of large trucks and buses, recorded 295 fatalities in bus crashes. But most of those (246) were to people who weren’t on a bus—mainly occupants of other vehicles involved in a crash or pedestrians. Although bus passengers, just like passengers using any other mode of transportation, are at risk of injury or death in an accident, buses are a much safer method of travel overall. For regular commuters, the risk of being in a fatal accident is seventeen times greater for those in cars over those in buses, even with the same annual mileage.
Memory Still Fresh
It was only five months ago that an even more serious California bus crash grabbed headlines nationwide. Thirteen passengers were killed and thirty-one injured when a tour bus that hadn’t slowed crashed into the rear of a semi-truck in a construction zone near Palm Springs. An official determination of the cause of that crash hasn’t been made, but several of those injured and relatives of some of the deceased have already initiated negligence and wrongful death lawsuits against the bus company.
California Bus Accident Lawyer
When you have been harmed in a bus crash, whether as a bus passenger, a pedestrian, or an occupant of another vehicle, you want to be made whole again. It’s important to your recovery to collect damages from the responsible parties to cover your medical bills, lost wages or salary, and any other expenses that result from the accident.
The team at Kohan & Bablove,LLP has been settling motor vehicle crash cases, including bus accident cases, for years. Get in touch with us to schedule a free consultation to go over the details of your case. Our phone number is 1-844-404-2400 or you can contact us online through the form below or by using the LiveChat feature of our website to begin the conversation immediately.
