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Archive for the ‘Seat Belts’ Category

It’s horrible to hear about a school bus wreck

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Car Accident. You hear those words and a lot of images come to mind.

But what about when you hear the words “bus accident?”

  • Was it a school bus or chartered bus?
  • How did this happen?
  • Are the children and others okay?
  • Was there something wrong with this bus?
  • Why are there no seat belts on some buses, especially school buses?

Since 2000, there have been over 1,200 motor vehicle traffic accidents involving school transportation vehicles according to the U.S. Department of Transportation National Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic Safety Facts, 2009 Data.

Bus accident, especially those involving young school children, are horrible to hear about. When word of the recent school bus wreck just outside Temple, Texas involving the Academy ISD school district children, some people were reminded of the 2003 chartered bus incident. In that accident, members of a local Temple church were traveling on IH-35 in Waco when the bus driver lost control of the vehicle, the bus crashed and then landed on its side.

Board certified attorney, John O. Roark, who has recently joined our law firm, was one of the attorneys who represented some of the individuals in the 2003 bus wreck. That case involved a team of attorneys and which resulted in a very favorable verdict for those injured in that accident.

When you or a loved one is involved in a bus accident, there will be many questions and you may not know what all of your options are under current Texas law. Dealing with the automobile insurance companies, your health insurance company, and possibly bill collectors can be quite overwhelming. Our staff, which includes three board certified attorneys, has experience in bus accident litigation and serious injury cases.

If you or a loved one has any questions, please feel free to contact our offices and we would be glad to assist you.

 

32 Children Sent to Hospital in School Bus Crash

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

On January 17th, a school bus from Academy, TX, which was carrying 38 children from all grade levels, was clipped by a hardware truck.  The school bus flipped onto its side after the hardware truck ran a stop sign.

The accident occurred in the early morning at the intersection of FM 93 and FM 95, which is near the outskirts of Temple, Texas.

32 people (29 of them were children) were sent to the hospital.  A 9 year old was ejected during the wreck and the school bus driver was knocked unconscious.  Three of the children were admitted to the hospital and one was listed in critical condition.

Academy school Superintendent, Kevin Sprinkles, stated that all the children were expected to recover, but that “they all face a long road” to recovery.

A passerby, Christina Mendoza, told the Temple Daily Telegram:  “There was a bunch of little ones all scraped up, and they were all alone.”

If you or a loved one was involved in this or another collision, please contact s for professional insight.

Tough, dependable and trustworthy, Cappolino | Dodd | Krebs LLP are the injury lawyers.

 

 

How our cars got safer

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

By Gibson Vance

Traffic deaths in the United States have dropped to their lowest level since 1949, according to a report released this month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Remarkably, this drop occurred even as Americans drove 21 billion more miles in 2010 than they had the previous year.

The drop in fatalities is due in large part to the fact that cars are getting safer. Since the introduction of the Ford Pinto nearly four decades ago — a car synonymous with danger, destruction and executives putting profits ahead of consumer safety — amazing advancements have been made in auto safety. The technology is better, regulations are stronger and buyers have more information. Not surprisingly, consumers are drawn to cars with the latest safety features.

Yet these factors alone do not tell the whole story. History shows that litigation and the civil justice system have served as the most consistent and powerful forces in heightening safety standards, revealing previously concealed defects and regulatory weaknesses and deterring manufacturers from cutting corners on safety for the goal of greater profits.

The Ford Pinto litigation sent a strong message to the auto industry. Unfortunately, manufacturers have still sold dangerous cars. In June 2004, a Dallas-area mother stopped her Ford F-150 truck to speak with her husband through the driver’s side window. Her 3-year-old daughter leaned out the passenger’s side window and accidentally hit the rocker switch, causing the window to close on her neck. When her parents noticed moments later, it was too late — their daughter was strangled.

As power windows became more common, so too did instances of children being strangled. Seven children died within a three-month period in 2004. Manufacturers were aware of the issue, and the fix was relatively simple and inexpensive. In response to regulations in other countries, European and Asian cars already used a safer switch — one that must be pulled up to raise a window — and so did many U.S. manufacturers on cars they offered to foreign markets. Yet incredibly, U.S. manufacturers did not install the safer switches on domestic cars because NHTSA had no rules governing power-window safety. Litigation eventually forced universal acceptance of the safer switches in 2006.

It is easy to take for granted just how much safer vehicles have become and how safety measures have been standardized. For years, the auto industry has worked to undermine regulations and limit its liability by pushing for complete immunity from lawsuits when their vehicles comply with minimum federal safety standards. This would, in short, be devastating for consumers.

Recall that the Pinto’s design met all government standards of the time. Had compliance with federal standards been a complete defense of vehicle safety, Ford could not have been held accountable for the many burn victims that the company was later shown to have anticipated.
Put another way, without the civil justice system, gas tanks would still explode in rear-end collisions, seat belts and airbags would not be standard, and cars would roll over onto roofs that would be easily crushed.

There are multiple reasons behind the welcome news that traffic deaths continue to decline. But the role of the civil justice system is often overlooked. Litigation has spurred safety innovations in vehicles for more than half a century and will continue to be essential in keeping Americans safe and holding manufacturers accountable.

The writer is president of the American Association for Justice. Source: The Washington Post, published April 15, 2011