Date: 07/25/2008 11:59 PM
PORT CHESTER, N.Y. (AP) _ Police say 54 people suffered minor injuries when two school buses collided on Interstate 95 in New York’s Westchester County.
It’s not clear how many victims are children or how many are hospitalized after Friday’s collision. Sgt. Richard Logerfo says at least some of the injured were taken to hospitals.
State police Sgt. John Maasz says the collision resulted in “a lot of injured people, mostly bumps and bruises.”
Logerfo did not immediately have information on the buses’ starting points or destinations. The buses crashed in the Port Chester area around 3 p.m.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Several New Jersey teens injured in Utah bus crash
Date: 07/17/2008 06:18 PM
PANGUITCH, Utah (AP) _ A tour bus went off a state highway near Bryce Canyon National Park, landing upside down in a creek bed and catching fire.
The Utah Highway Patrol says several of the 47 New Jersey teenagers aboard the bus were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. The bus also was carrying a half-dozen chaperones from Laine, N.J.
Highway Patrol spokesman Cameron Roden says the teenagers were injured from the rollover, not the small fire that broke out on the bus.
The bus was headed through Red Canyon, a gateway to the national park, when it went off the road Thursday.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
PANGUITCH, Utah (AP) _ A tour bus went off a state highway near Bryce Canyon National Park, landing upside down in a creek bed and catching fire.
The Utah Highway Patrol says several of the 47 New Jersey teenagers aboard the bus were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. The bus also was carrying a half-dozen chaperones from Laine, N.J.
Highway Patrol spokesman Cameron Roden says the teenagers were injured from the rollover, not the small fire that broke out on the bus.
The bus was headed through Red Canyon, a gateway to the national park, when it went off the road Thursday.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Court finds Mitsubishi, 3 former execs guilty
Date: 07/15/2008 12:06 AM
By SHINO YUASA
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) _ A Japanese court on Tuesday found Mitsubishi Motors and three former executives guilty of falsifying a report to the government in a fatal accident suspected of being linked to a wheel defect.
The Tokyo High Court threw out a lower court decision in December 2006 that acquitted the three people, including Takashi Usami, former chairman of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp., the automaker’s truck division at that time.
At the center of the trial was whether the executives tried to hide a wheel defect suspected of being linked to the February 2002 accident. Shiho Okamoto, 29, was killed when a wheel rolled off a Mitsubishi truck and crushed her. Her two children were also injured in the accident.
A court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing court policy, said the higher court rejected the December 2006 decision by the Yokohama Summary Court that acquitted the three and the company.
Tuesday’s ruling slapped a 200,000 yen ($1,900) fine on each defendant, the maximum penalty for the charge under Japanese law.
Mitsubishi Motors said it accepted the ruling.
“We will do our utmost to regain consumer trust,” the Tokyo-based automaker said in a statement. The former executives did not immediately comment on the ruling.
Mitsubishi Motors stock dropped in morning trading Tuesday to 182 yen ($1.7), down 1.1 percent.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By SHINO YUASA
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) _ A Japanese court on Tuesday found Mitsubishi Motors and three former executives guilty of falsifying a report to the government in a fatal accident suspected of being linked to a wheel defect.
The Tokyo High Court threw out a lower court decision in December 2006 that acquitted the three people, including Takashi Usami, former chairman of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp., the automaker’s truck division at that time.
At the center of the trial was whether the executives tried to hide a wheel defect suspected of being linked to the February 2002 accident. Shiho Okamoto, 29, was killed when a wheel rolled off a Mitsubishi truck and crushed her. Her two children were also injured in the accident.
A court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing court policy, said the higher court rejected the December 2006 decision by the Yokohama Summary Court that acquitted the three and the company.
Tuesday’s ruling slapped a 200,000 yen ($1,900) fine on each defendant, the maximum penalty for the charge under Japanese law.
Mitsubishi Motors said it accepted the ruling.
“We will do our utmost to regain consumer trust,” the Tokyo-based automaker said in a statement. The former executives did not immediately comment on the ruling.
Mitsubishi Motors stock dropped in morning trading Tuesday to 182 yen ($1.7), down 1.1 percent.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Another Kentucky Bus Wreck
In an odd string of coincidences, there have been a string of bus accidents recently with some connection to Kentucky. Last month it was a bus full of school kids on their way to church camp from Lexington, KY involved in a crash. A young boy in the other vehicle later died from his injuries.
Yesterday, an Illinois charter bus crashed near Bowling Green, Kentucky, off I-65. While the rash of school bus accidents which occupy this blog during the school year has of course quieted down with the summer vacation, it is charter buses, with a whole different group of issues that are making headlines. See the Bowling Green Daily News article at http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2008/07/06/multimedia/sound_slides/801crash.txt
With long charter trips, the issue of fatigue (especially when being driven by those who are not experienced over the road drivers) becomes a major issue. While there are strict rules (and somewhat reasonable compliance) for over-the-road truck drivers, these charter trips, often don’t comply with such rules. The drivers may be school bus drivers or volunteers. Fatigue is one of the most serious risk factors in all traffic situations as even if a driver doesn’t fall asleep, fatigue can affect them in similar ways as alcohol. See http://semi-accident.com/fatigue.html Fatigue is being investigated in Sunday’s wreck.
Yesterday, an Illinois charter bus crashed near Bowling Green, Kentucky, off I-65. While the rash of school bus accidents which occupy this blog during the school year has of course quieted down with the summer vacation, it is charter buses, with a whole different group of issues that are making headlines. See the Bowling Green Daily News article at http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2008/07/06/multimedia/sound_slides/801crash.txt
With long charter trips, the issue of fatigue (especially when being driven by those who are not experienced over the road drivers) becomes a major issue. While there are strict rules (and somewhat reasonable compliance) for over-the-road truck drivers, these charter trips, often don’t comply with such rules. The drivers may be school bus drivers or volunteers. Fatigue is one of the most serious risk factors in all traffic situations as even if a driver doesn’t fall asleep, fatigue can affect them in similar ways as alcohol. See http://semi-accident.com/fatigue.html Fatigue is being investigated in Sunday’s wreck.