High deck buses are automatically at a greater risk of serious injuries to passengers because they have a high center of gravity and can tip over when making turns or curves at elevated speeds. These vehicles have a greater chance of causing serious and often fatal accidents. It is too easy for the drivers of high-deck buses to lose control of these vehicles.
These are often caused by drivers who are fatigued from driving long distances. There are other risk factors to having a serious high-deck bus accident. These factors include drivers and passengers not wearing a seat belt. There can be drunk driving, reckless driving with the majority of accidents occurring between 12 am and dawn. Exchange ramps on freeways are particularly dangerous because of the curve involved and the speeds involved.
There have been safety policies put into effect in order to make long distance driving with high-deck buses safer to ride in. These include restricting the time the driver gets to drive and having mandatory rest breaks, putting in sleep-warning devices in the bus, and having drivers with obstructive sleep apnea be evaluated and treated for their disorder before being allowed to drive. In addition, passengers and drivers should be allowed to wear seatbelts. Seatbelts should be able to limit the seriousness of injury and reduce the chances of being ejected from the bus.
I’m Ed Smith, a Sacramento Personal Injury Attorney with the primary accident information site on the web, AutoAccident.com. If you or someone you love has been in a bus accident, call me now at 916-921-6400. You can find out more about our office by looking either Yelp or on Avvo, the attorney raring site.