Bus Accident

December 15, 2020

Lawsuit Filed After Bus Crash

Berenson Injury Law has filed suit against a major interstate bus company and its driver on behalf of a man who was seriously injured in a collision west of Fort Worth.

Our law firm and others in Texas have alleged that the defendants’ negligence caused a catastrophic collision and personal injuries in September.

As the bus proceeded through a controlled intersection marked by flashing yellow lights, a pickup truck failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed into the bus. It flipped over and slid down the highway before finally coming to a rest.

August 26, 2019

Avoiding Car Accidents With Children

by William K. Berenson

school-crossing-guard

It was exciting that school began last week but every year, a lot of people forget how much potential danger lurks. That’s because roads are more congested in school areas and people won’t put down their cell phones, even as kids are darting across the street. School buses pick up and unload over one million kids in Texas. So the need to be hyper-vigilent as we drop children off or make our morning and afternoon drives has greatly increased. Here are some helpful tips that will help stop these preventable car accidents with children.

May 9, 2019

Shoulder Injury Lawsuit Successfully Resolved

by William K. Berenson

shoulder My client was driving his car on Interstate 35 in Fort Worth when traffic suddenly came to a stop and an 18-wheeler next to him was not able to stop in time. The truck crashed into a motorcyclist and tragically killed her. It then sideswiped our client’s car and rammed into four other vehicles, seriously injuring several drivers. The damage to our client’s car was relatively minor and he drove home.

We conducted an immediate investigation and obtained all necessary evidence. Our client had torn a ligament in his left shoulder and he had to undergo two arthroscopic procedures to repair it. Our client did not have health insurance and we arranged the medical treatment he needed and assisted him financially. We filed a lawsuit and settled his case at a mediation.

The biggest problem with the case was that the trucking company was severely under-insured, as many are. Personal injury lawyers often learn later that there is only the minimum required amount of $750,000 to cover everyone who is injured or who loses his or her life. This amount has not increased in the almost 40 years since it was first instituted. Clearly, that is not fair to the people and the families of victims who are hurt in these multiple vehicle collisions. The truck company’s insurance company chose to quickly pay the wrongful death claim so there were insufficient proceeds for the other claimants. This is another reason it is important for injured victims to act quickly to preserve their rights. Continue reading

October 10, 2018

Who is Liable in a School Bus Crash and How Are Damages Paid?

by William K. Berenson

School Bus Crash Takes Life of Girl Near Dallas

A bus taking 42 students home last week ran off of the road in Mesquite and slammed into an electric pole. The school bus crash caused it to flip over and burst into flames from the impact with the power line. A 12-year-old girl was trapped inside and tragically died.

Three children, three police officers, and the 67-year-old bus driver were rushed to local hospitals, fortunately with non serious injuries according to the Mesquite Police Department. A young man on the bus heroically saved many of the students. It is truly a miracle that more children did not perish. Adding to the heart-breaking story, the sister of the girl was also on the bus.

August 20, 2018

Back To School Safety Tips

by William K. Berenson

School started today and the streets of Dallas-Fort Worth have suddenly changed. Roads that were not busy in the morning and afternoon are now crowded school zones. Buses are back on the roads carrying one million of our precious students between their homes and schools in Texas.

Unfortunately there were 671 accidents in school zones throughout Texas during the 2015-2016 school year.

UPDATE 8/22/18: The Star Telegram reports that a car crashed into a school bus in north Fort Worth this morning causing one child to be rushed to the emergency room and injuring nine other children. It’s only the third day of the new school year.

One collision or injury is too many. We adults have to use extreme caution to make sure no more children are injured this year.

Ways to protect our kids

These accidents most often occur as children are walking or riding their bikes to school. When you fail to heed the school zone laws including the slower speed limits, you could be the cause of a child getting injured. We all know how frustrating it is to get stuck behind a slow school bus or waiting while a group of children cross a crosswalk. But these rules protect kids from getting serious injuries. We have to be responsible for them and assume they might be careless.

June 14, 2018

$10.9 Million Verdict Upheld In Fatal Bus Crash

by William K. Berenson

The jury verdict arising out of the tragic collision in 2013 that took the lives of three women and injured 42 people was affirmed by the Dallas Court of Appeals.

A charter bus was taking a group of senior citizens from DFW to the casino owned by the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma.

Lloyd Rieve, who worked for Cardinal Coach, lost control of the bus in Irving. It flipped over and landed on its side. Sue Taylor, who had organized the trip, and two women, Alice Stanley and Paula Hahn, sustained fatal injuries.

Family representatives filed a lawsuit for the wrongful deaths of Ms. Stanley and Ms. Hahn. The plaintiffs settled with Mr. Rieve and Cardinal before trial and proceeded against the Choctow Nation, which denied any liability. It blamed Rieve and Cardinal for the crash.

The plaintiffs argued that the casino derived most of its income from bus trips like this, with most of them from here in North Texans. Cardinal had apparently failed to perform the required safety background check on its employee, Mr. Rieve, who had a bad driving record.

The trial took two weeks. The jury deliberated for four days.

The verdict awarded the Hahn family approximately $6 million and the Stanley family $5 million.

November 3, 2017

School Bus Crash Case Settled For Maximum Amount

by William K. Berenson

How To Recover Damages After Government Employee Causes A Crash.

Special laws apply if you are involved in a collision caused by a state worker like a school bus driver.

I just obtained an offer for the total amount available under state law for my client. He was driving this 18-wheeler last summer when a school bus driver loaded with children failed to yield at a stop sign and caused this crash. My client had to have surgery to his shoulder and ankle. I have also made his workers compensation carrier agree to substantially cut its reimbursement lien.

But suing state agencies and their employees can be difficult, if not impossible, since our state legislature has imposed strict limitations on liability, damages amounts, and legal procedures.

Here’s how this legal process differs from most injury cases.

March 31, 2017

Swerving Pickup Truck Causes Deadly Texas Church Van Crash

by William K. Berenson

UPDATED 4/13/17: Police found two entire marijuana cigarettes and five that had been partially smoked ones in the truck and an affidavit was filed stating that the truck driver admitted he took clonazepam and Lexapro and Ambien (generic forms) earlier that day.

UPDATED 4/3/17: Truck driver admits to texting while driving at 65 MPH for over 20 minutes. The church bus was a retrofitted Ford 350 van.

3/31/17: A New Braunfels church is devastated over the loss of 13 of its members in a horrifying head-on collision Wednesday afternoon. The choir members were travelling home from a retreat west of San Antonio when a huge Duelly pickup truck collided head-on into their van.

The impact tragically killed all but one of the van passengers. The survivor remains hospitalized in critical condition. They were seniors ranging in age to 87 years old. The driver of the pickup, a 20-year-old man, is in stable condition.

Before the wreck, callers had alerted police that the truck was swerving all over the road and was about to crash into other vehicles. Deputies were on their way to try to stop the catastrophe. Continue reading

February 8, 2017

How Are Damages Capped When You Are Injured in Crash Caused By Government Owned Vehicle?

by William K. Berenson

It was just revealed by NBC5 that the Dallas school district has settled 680 personal injury claims and paid $2.3 million in settlements over the past few years.

Most are fortunately small injuries, so the recoveries are just a few thousand dollars each. But sometimes the injuries were substantial — and the settlements were not proportionately large.

The Phillips family, whose daughter suffered a ruptured spleen when a bus collided with the family’s car, told the reporter how the money did not cover their damages.

Due to laws governing the maximum amounts that can be paid by state, county, city, and branches of local governments like the school district here, the total amounts are limited.

How do those caps affect injury claims against governmental branches and units?

October 26, 2016

Why Are There So Many Deadly Bus Crashes?

by William K. Berenson

Early Sunday morning, the most recent mass casualty casino bus crash occurred in southern California. A shocking 13 people died and dozens more suffered catastrophic injuries in the horrific collision.

The bus driver who slammed into the back of the stopped 18 wheeler was going so fast that the bus ripped a gaping hole in the back of the semi and came to a stop 15 feet inside its trailer.

Investigators have already determined that the tread on multiple tires were worn down so low that they were far below federal safety standards.

“The vehicle was out of compliance with Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspection criteria, and it could have been placed out of service,” an NTSB board member reported yesterday.

In addition, since the driver never applied his brakes, driver fatigue was another cause of the deadly collision, all too common in these early morning bus and other commercial vehicle collisions.

This was an accident just waiting to happen. The bus was old. It was manufactured 50 years ago in 1966. The bus company driving it only operated this one bus. However it was not allowed to be on the road No one had apparently inspected the bus or its tires recently. Further, the driver was obviously unqualified.

As if that weren’t bad enough news, you can bet that the company has inadequate liability insurance. The minimum required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is $5 million. This will not be enough to pay the damage claims of the families of the 12 passengers (not counting the driver) who died and the many others who were seriously injured.

Why do so many bus collisions like this happen? According to the FMCSA, an estimated 3,290 crash each year. That’s incredible.

Why are insurance limits so low?

And more importantly, how can we stop these crashes from happening over and over again?