One Call, That’s All 800-404-9000
CASE EVALUATIONS ARE FAST, EASY, AND FREE.
A school bus crash shook up about two dozen students last week when the bus driver apparently ran a stop sign and the bus was hit by an SUV. The crash in Twin Falls on the morning of Friday, March 31, happened at the intersection of Grandview Drive and South Park Avenue. The bus failed to stop and entered South Park Avenue, where cross traffic has a speed limit of 50 mph. The SUV could not stop in time and hit the bus.
The passengers on the bus, twenty-five students from Lincoln Elementary School, were examined by paramedics at the scene. None were injured and no one was sent to a hospital, although a few students complained of pain. The lack of detail in the reports suggests that the occupants of the SUV were also unharmed, and that property damage in the crash was minimal. The bus driver received a ticket for failure to yield.
All types of motor vehicle are involved in crashes every day, even buses. But on the whole, bus crashes are less frequent than car crashes and they result in far fewer injuries and deaths. According to a review of ten years of highway crash data by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), fatal injuries involving a school bus accounted for less than one-half of one percent of all traffic fatalities. For passengers inside a bus, the odds are even better: Of 1,344 killed in school bus crashes, only 106 were bus passengers. The majority (955) were in other vehicles involved in the crash while most of the rest (239) were pedestrians.
Overall, the NHTSA estimates that buses are seven times safer than cars when they get into accidents, and that students who are driven to school in a car (instead of taking the bus) are at a fifty times greater risk of being in a fatal crash.
We were happy to read that no one was injured in this crash, but it still caught our attention. This is the second school bus crash we’ve heard of in Twin Falls already this year. A pickup struck a bus in January; that crash also had no reported injuries. Also in January, a car crashed head-on into a school bus in Eagle. No one was injured in that crash, either.
Last week’s crash was blamed on the bus driver, but other motorists were at fault in both of these other incidents.
If you’ve been in a motor vehicle accident of any kind, whether it involves a car, a truck, a bus, or even if you were a pedestrian, it’s important to get in touch with an attorney who understands how to approach this kind of case. Craig Swapp & Associates has years of experience with automobile accident law, and we offer a free consultation to each client to discuss the details of his or her case. Call us at 1-800-404-9000 or contact us online through the form below. The LiveChat feature of this website can also be used to obtain answers to your basic questions.
Written By: Ryan Swapp Legal Review By: Craig Swapp