Articles Posted in Bus Accident

The Dallas County School District announced yesterday that is has fired or suspended several hundred bus drivers for violating basic traffic laws. The people paid to safely get children to and from school had racked up 480 traffic citations for failing to stop for red lights or stopped buses just in the last two years.

That’s a startling 10 percent of all Dallas school bus drivers.

Running a red light is inexcusable for any driver, but for a bus driver, it’s outrageous.

Tax Dollars Paid the Traffic Tickets

Not only did the Dallas school bus drivers put children and other motorists at risk and allow these reckless drivers to continue driving for years, but the school district paid $80,000.00 for their traffic tickets. Dallas County citizens got stuck paying these traffic tickets with money that could have used for schoolbooks, lunches or teachers’ salaries. The district didn’t even bother to ask the drivers to reimburse the city or reprimand them for their recklessness.

However if you or I drive around a bus with the stop arm extended we can get hit with a $300 – $1,000 fine. School bus drivers, who should know better than anyone the dangers to children, paid zero.

In response to the investigation, two high-level managers were fired for failing to properly oversee the bus drivers. The Dallas School District also announced a new once-and-done rule in which any bus driver caught passing a bus that has its stop arm extended faces immediate dismissal. Bus drivers will also have to pay back the fines. Finally. Continue reading

Ten local children had an eventful second week of school. They were headed home on Wednesday when their bus collided with a pickup truck on I-35 near downtown Fort Worth. The pickup rolled over and came to rest on its roof. Miraculously, nobody was injured.

There are plenty of other bus collisions that have happened in our area recently.

• Two weeks ago, a car hit a school bus packed with middle school students in Denton and it caught on fire. Eight of the 45 kids suffered injuries.
• Last spring, a Fort Worth school bus carrying 32 students collided with a passenger vehicle near Loop 820 and I-20 and several children were injured.
• Two weeks later, seven Alvarado students and the bus driver were injured when a tractor-trailer plowed into the bus.
• Just a few days later, two bus crashes occurred in Fort Worth on the same day. A Honda ran into a school bus and two hours later an SUV ran into a different bus carrying 17 middle and high school students and caused several injuries.

And my law firm is currently representing two people seriously injured in bus-related collisions. In the first case, a man driving an 18 wheeler was hit by a loaded school bus that darted out in front of his truck. In the second, a little girl was walking across the road to catch her bus when a  speeding truck failed to stop and hit her.

This is ridiculous. School buses are huge and bright yellow, and everyone can see them. And when they stop, a long arm extends out to the side and lights flash to inform other vehicles to also stop. If their obvious appearance isn’t enough, the law is very clear.

Drivers are prohibited from passing a stopped school bus with its stop sign and lights activated. Violating this law can result in a $1,000 traffic ticket. Continue reading

Two recent crashes in Texas show that they are.

1. On Saturday a bus driving to a casino near Laredo rolled over and catastrophically killed eight elderly passengers and injured 44 others. Just last year, the tiny bus company was twice ordered to take one of its buses — in its fleet of two — off the road. Louisiana inspectors found 15 safety violations involving vehicle maintenance, driver records and hours reporting.

Were these violations ever corrected? Was the same bus involved? These answers have not been released but seem obvious.

2.And just two weeks ago, a Dallas jury awarded $10.9 million to the families of two victims killed in another crash.

In April 2013, after stopping in Bedford to pick up passengers, the bus headed up the Bush Turnpike. In Irving, the driver lost control of the bus, hit barrels in the right lane, swerved across two lanes of traffic and hit a concrete barrier to the left, flipping the bus over. The senseless collision killed two people and seriously injured 40 others.

In addition to the size of the verdict, the case is unusual because the defendant is the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma that chartered the bus to drive seniors to its Oklahoma casino. However the casino operator was not driving it.

Continue reading

This New Device Protects Kids

You would think having a huge yellow vehicle with flashing lights and a bright red stop sign would be enough to alert drivers to stop for a school bus. Unfortunately, motorists often ignore these glaring warning signs and speed past school buses while children are getting on and off.

This is what happened to a new client of mine. As her young daughter was crossing the street to get on her bus in Fort Worth, a speeding truck ran her over. Fortunately, he missed several other kids next to the girl. 

The child had to be rushed to the hospital, where she had to stay for four days, and can only attend school being pushed in a wheelchair. The poor girl will need another major surgery in a few months to replace the plates and screws holding her tiny leg together.

This horrible tragedy could have been avoided had the driver just stopped for the brief time it took for the children to cross the road. What could be that important that he felt compelled to whip around the bus and seriously injure a young child? We’ll find out in court.

Children at Risk Near School Buses

As this article in today’s Dallas Morning News explains, a stopped school bus doesn’t stop drivers from violating state law — and common sense — and risking children’s lives and limbs.

After the McKinney Independent School District estimated that drivers blazed past stopped buses 3,500 times last year, it designed a new program to curb speeding past stopped buses.

Continue reading

School is in full swing around the Metroplex — and so are the hectic mornings. As you rush your children to school before racing to get to work, you may not even notice you are speeding. You may also be tempted to multitask, possibly texting your office or calling a friend. But obeying traffic laws is now more important than ever with so many children on buses, in cars, and on foot travelling to and from school.

Be Mindful of School Zones

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) reports that 625 auto accidents occurred in Texas school zones last year that resulted in two fatalities and 112 severe injuries. Distracted driving, speeding and failing to stop at stop signs were the most common factors that contributed to school zone crashes.

The TxDOT offers these tips for avoiding causing a car crash in a school zone:

• Never use a cellphone in a school zone.
• Go the speed limit, especially near a school.
• Comply with designated drop-off and pickup points prescribed by your child’s school.
• Expect kids to dart across the street or between cars.

Continue reading