Bus And Car Accidents

March 9, 2015

Bus and car accidents

When most people get into their vehicles, whether as a driver or passenger, they immediately reach for the seat belt and ensure the device is fastened prior to the vehicle is in motion. For the 700 million plus people who use commercial buses like PAT in the United States each year, buckling a seatbelt is not an option.

After a bus accident in 1968 in which nineteen people were killed, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has often called for mandatory seat belts on all commercial buses. Despite nearly fifty years of these recommendations and the support of safety highway advocates and politicians, regulations requiring seat belts in buses are yet to be signed into law.

Commercial bus company owners have opposed laws mandating seat belts on buses, citing the high costs associated with installing them; however, after a 2007 fatal bus accident involving a baseball team from an Ohio university killed seven individuals, even bus companies began realizing the need for seat belts.

Commercial buses typically carry about fifty passengers. If involved in an accident, passengers are likely to both become and be impaled by flying objects within a bus’s interior. In addition, about 50% of fatal bus accidents involve rollover crashes. In many of these cases, those passengers are fatally injured when ejected from a bus. These types of injuries, however, would likely be prevented with the inclusion and use of seat belts.

Pennsylvania residents who have been injured in a bus or other type of commercial truck accident may choose to take legal action. In many cases, both the drivers of commercial vehicles and their employers are negligent in failing to follow important safety rules. If you’ve been injured in a bus accident, call the Pittsburgh personal injury law offices of Goodrich & Geist, P.C. for a free consultation today at 800-806-2456.