A group of tourists, including 15 people from Milwaukee, were injured when their shuttle van crashed at Orlando International Airport, according to a local TV station.
The van’s passengers included the group of tourists from Milwaukee, ages 1 to 56. The accident took place near Terminal B.
A New Jersey woman who suffered brain damage, and had her left leg and right foot amputated, after being run over by a bus is getting a $7.85 million settlement, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Saturday.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/woman_badly_hurt_by_nj_transit.html
Mercedes Perez, 59, sustained her life-changing injuries in an Oct. 9, 2008 accident in Paterson, N.J., where she was hit by a NJ Transit bus at the intersection of Cianci and Market streets. Superior Court Judge Anthony Graziano in Passaic County approved her settlement Friday, according to The Ledger.
A just-hired bus driver hit Perez while she was in the middle of a crosswalk. The Ledger reported that the bus ran over her legs, and that Perez’s head also hit the ground, knocking her out. As a result, Perez suffered traumatic brain injury, had her left leg amputated above the knee, had part of her right foot amputated, and had to have metal rings inserted in her fractured cheekbone, according to The Ledger.
In the aftermath of her devastating injuries, Perez was on a ventilator for 18 days and underwent several operations. She also got septis, The Ledger reported.
Perez’s current condition is that she is bedridden, cannot talk and is being fed by a tube.
The woman, run over when she was on her way to the dentist, is at a rehab center in Edison, N.J., but will now be transferred to a private facility.
It appears that you’re putting your life at risk if you use a city-to-city curbside bus service, according to a study just released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2011/111031.html
The study found that the rapid growth of curbside carriers poses challenges for effective safety oversight, and that such cheapie, sometimes fly-by-night bus operators have a fatal accident rate that is seven times that of buses that run out of bus terminals.
The study’s results were released during a Halloween press conference that incuded NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and U.S. Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez. The six-month study on curbside motorcoach safety was initiated — at the request of Schumer and Velazquez — following a series of accidents in this rapidly growing industry.
“It’s abundantly clear that the oversight of this industry has not kept pace with its growth and the consequences have been deadly,” Schumer said in a statement. “The NTSB report is a wake-up call that we need a more rigorous regulatory regime and it provides a blueprint for how to fill the gaps. I want to thank Chairman Hersman for so quickly and efficiently responding to our goal and I look forward to working with her as we now begin the process of working to overhaul how this industry is regulated and monitored.”
The deadliest accident to date happened March 12 in the Bronx, when a bus crash killed 15 people and injured 18 more. That accident ” highlights key safety issues related to this fast-growing segment of the transportation industry,” the NTSA said in a press release.
“Business and safety practices within the growing curbside bus industry create challenges for enforcement authorities and consumers alike when it comes to separating the safe operators from the unsafe operators,” Hersman said at the press conference.
The report is the first comprehensive evaluation of the motorcoach industry, with an emphasis on what are commonly known as curbside carriers. Curbside motorcoach operations consist of scheduled trips that begin or end at locations other than traditional bus terminals; most of these operations pick up or discharge passengers at one or more curbside locations.
The study analyzed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) data and conducted field work, which included interviews, focus groups, and observations of compliance reviews and inspections.
The key study findings include:
1. In general, motorcoach travel is safe. However, curbside carriers with 10 or fewer buses and carriers who have been in business for 10 years or less, have higher accident rates and higher roadside inspection violation rates.
2. The fatal accident rate for curbside carriers from January 2005 to March 2011 was seven times that of conventional bus operations: 1.4 fatal accidents per 100 vehicles for curbside carriers compared with 0.2 fatal accidents per 100 vehicles for conventional scheduled carriers.
3. The exclusion of buses from routine enroute inspections — especially of curbside carriers that don’t operate from terminals — reduces opportunities to discover safety violations.
4. The FMCSA is overburdened. For example, 878 FMCSA and state personnel are responsible for compliance reviews for more than 765,000 U.S. motor carriers, a ratio of 1.15 investigators per 1,000 motor carriers.
5. Bus driver fatigue, a contributing factor in many accidents, is a continuing safety concern.
6. There is a lack of transparency in ticket sales. More than conventional carriers, curbside operators use online bus brokers. FMCSA has no authority to regulate these brokers.
“Motorcoach safety is on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List because of the potential for high-consequence accidents like we saw in the Bronx,” Hersman said. “It’s time to recognize that traditional transportation services have morphed into new business models that challenge existing regulatory constructs. I want to thank Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Velazquez for their leadership on this important safety issue.”
Since March, the NTSB has initiated investigations into two curbside bus crashes and has been assessing safety issues in three others. These five accidents resulted in 22 fatalities and 159 injuries.
“When travelers board a bus, they should feel safe, whether the trip starts in a terminal or at a Chinatown sidewalk,” Velazquez said in a statement. ”"The NTSB study has revealed important information about curbside motorcoach travel and, in the coming weeks, we’ll need to continue working to improve the safety regulations that govern this growing industry.”
After several multiple-fatality bus crashes, authorities in New York state and New York City have just completed a one-month crackdown on illegal buses, the New York Post reported Saturday.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/hitting_brakes_hard_LHz8Mb63oP1rHv5lpcTsuN
The tabloid said that the New York City Police Department and state transportation officials had put 46 interstate buses out of commission for “everything from safety violations to mechanical issues.”
As part of the sweep, three bus companies that were transporting passengers out of state, but didn’t even have a license to operate, were immediately shut down, according to the Post.
The crackdown came in the wake of a startling number of tour-bus accidents this year, including one that killed 15 people on their way to Chinatown in March.
The New York safety-inspection crackdown wound up with 150 summonses being issued to bus companies and drivers, the Post said.
Once again, another tour bus accident. This time on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Rescue crews are working to free a person trapped when a Greyhound bus overturned on the interstate, injuring 29 people. The westbound bus flipped on its side at about 6 a.m. Saturday, one mile east of the Lebanon-Lancaster exit.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-08-13-greyhound-accident-pennsylvania_n.htm?csp=34news
This is an especially tragic story: A bus driver in northeastern Pennsylvania died when her bus hit another one that her husband was driving.
Ruth Lynady, 72, was thrown out of the bus she was driving Tuesday in the accident in Ararat, Pa., which is in Susquehanna County.
Her husband William Lynady was driving the other bus involved in the crash, according to state police. The husband was in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The family of the Lynadys, who lived in Clarks Summit, Pa., confirmed their relationship, according to the Associated Press.
The Lynadys were both driving their buses to a local camp, and they didn’t have any passengers aboard.
In a horrific accident in a fantasy world, a 9-year-old boy died after being hit by a bus at Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness Resort in Florida Thursday. http://www.wesh.com/entertainment/23026301/detail.html
Chase Brubaker of St. Petersburg, Fla., was riding his bike with a young girl on the sidewalk on Big Pine Drive. But then Brubaker apparently left the sidewalk and went into the road. He hit the side of a bus, was pulled underneath it and then was run over by the vehicle.
The boy, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was wearing a helmet. The girl was unharmed.
The man driving the bus, which picks up visitors along the Fort Wilderness Loop, was David Russel Rich, of Montverde, Fla. Police said a full investigation could take as long as two months.
“We wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the boy’s family d loved ones for their loss,” a Disney spokeswoman said.
A crowded bus fell off a cliff in west Nepal and plunged into a river Thursday, killing more than 30 people. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/18/nepal.bus.crash/
The accident happened in a remote area, with the bus tumbling off a mountain road more than 600 feet into the Karnali River. The incident took place near the village of Pipalkot, which is 250 miles west of Katmandu. http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1207175〈=eng_news
Responders, 100 police and soldiers, had recovered 33 bodies, and were still searching. Ten bus passengers who were injured we sent to local hospitals for treatment.
The dead included eight women, a baby and 21 men.
There are frequent accidents in Nepal because of the overcrowding of buses; bad road conditions; and poorly maintained roads and vehicles.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/03/18/world/international-uk-nepal-crash.html
