A pair of weekend charter bus accidents on the east and west coasts created havoc that resulted in deaths and severe personal injuries to their passengers.
In one case, dozens of young people suffered personal injuries in a Boston bus wreck that occurred on Saturday, February 2, as they headed home from a day of touring Harvard University, when the distracted driver of their private charter bus ignored trucking safety height restriction road signs and looked up from his GPS too late to avoid ramming their too-tall bus into a low Boston overpass.
The accident happened on one of Boston’s busiest thoroughfares, in frigid temperatures, and the bus hit the overpass so hard that the impact buckled the bus roof downward in the middle, injuring several children who had to endure the cold for hours during efforts to extract them from the destroyed bus.
On Sunday, February 3, a California charter bus accident killed seven people and injured three dozen others, all tourists. This accident may have been caused by faulty equipment on the charter bus, as reports indicated that the truck’s brakes failed as it was descending a mountain after a visit to a popular tourist attraction. As the out-of-control bus picked up speed, it slammed into a vehicle, rolled over onto its side, then was knocked upright when it was hit by a truck, ejecting passengers through the windows.
In tourist-friendly Tampa, charter bus accidents are not uncommon. Florida charter buses are commercial vehicles, subject to trucking safety regulations from the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), as well as state laws applicable to common carriers. Among these laws are safety regulations relating to height restrictions and to vehicle inspection and maintenance, the apparent causes of these two bus trucking accidents. In the California case, reports indicated that the carrier had been cited for lax maintenance of its vehicles in the past, and an FMCSA inspection team was investigating the accident to determine whether this catastrophic bus wreck was caused by driver error or mechanical failure.
The experienced personal injury attorneys with Brooks Law Group have a long record of successfully helping those who have been injured or have lost their loved ones to trucking accidents, including charter bus wrecks. While a lawsuit can never fully compensate you for the emotional shock of injuries or deaths that result from motor vehicle accidents, you can seek personal injury or wrongful death damages to help ease the financial burden of funeral expenses, medical bills, lost wages, lost future earnings, pain and suffering, or the lost support and companionship of a beloved family member.
