One particular area that Maryland residents should expect the utmost in safety is in the school buses in which our children ride daily. The fact is that passenger cars, delivery trucks and commercial big rigs share the same roads with our kids’ school buses and church shuttle vehicles. The law of averages means that, sadly, an occasional traffic accident involving a school bus will likely occur sometime in your city or town.
While we all hope our children will not be involved in a bus-car or bus-truck collision, it could happen any time. As a Baltimore trucking accident lawyer, I and my associates understand how difficult it is to care for an injured child while holding down a job and running a household. Anytime a person, young or old, is hurt in a car crash or truck wreck, the victim’s family will usually be under a financial stress caused by mounting medical and healthcare bills.
Not long ago, a school bus loaded with elementary school kids from Winston Middle School was caught up in a bad traffic accident in the Baltimore area. According to news reports, a number of people were injured when a car collided with the students’ bus. The wreck occurred on a weekday morning just before 8am at the intersection of Loch Raven Boulevard and Lochwood Road.
It was difficult to tell if the crash was due to driver error or perhaps some kind of mechanical problem or defective equipment. One witness likened the accident to that of a scene from an action movie. News articles described the incident by saying that a passenger car pulled onto Loch Raven and collided the bus, which was transporting disabled children.
Witnesses said that the car went airborne onto the bus. As a result, eight people were injured in the crash, all of whom were taken to the hospital by ambulance. When rescuers arrived on the scene they found four people trapped in the automobile — three young children and one an adult, according to the Baltimore Fire Department.
Two of the young boys got out of the car by themselves, but a seven-year-old girl was badly injured and apparently couldn’t get out by herself. The female driver herself was trapped and had to be cut out by emergency personnel. According to police reports, the driver’s injuries were not life threatening, but the girl was apparently bleeding badly and was transported to Hopkins Pediatric.
Also hurt in the car-bus collision were four special needs children who were riding on the school bus when it was hit. Although those kids reportedly were not severely hurt, they were all complaining of some kind of minor injuries at the time. At the time of the report, police had not yet determined who, if anyone, was at fault in the crash.
Several Injured After Car & School Bus Crash, WJZ.com, March 23, 2010