Like every other school day, thousands of kids in North Carolina boarded their buses to head to school this morning. Although most kids made it to school safely this morning, a dozen students were involved in an accident when their bus driver rear-ended a garbage truck.
State troopers reported that the school bus accident occurred this morning in Randolph County. Fortunately, none of the 12 students who were on the bus were seriously injured. A trooper did report, though, that one child was taken to a local hospital in order to make sure the student’s injuries were not too serious.
Police said the students’ bus driver had crashed the vehicle into the back of a garbage truck that was stopped on the road. According to police, the bus driver should have been able to stop the bus before hitting the garbage truck. As a result, police said that the bus driver was cited for failing to reduce speed in order to avoid a motor vehicle accident. Reports have not stated why the driver failed to avoid hitting the garbage truck.
Parents may have certainly been frightened at first when they heard that their children were involved in a school bus accident this morning on the way to school. Although parents may now feel relieved to know that their children were not seriously harmed in the accident, some may still be concerned about why the crash happened at all. Bus drivers are responsible for keeping their passengers safe, which means these drivers should always be paying attention to the roads and abiding by traffic laws. Failing to take one’s driving privileges seriously could be disastrous.
In North Carolina, parents whose children are harmed in school bus accidents may be eligible to obtain compensation for their kids’ injuries. In some cases, parents may be able to file a personal injury claim against a negligent driver who struck a school bus. When school bus drivers are at fault, though, parents may need to file a lawsuit against a school district and a county under the State Tort Claims Act in order to obtain compensation for a child’s injuries. To learn more about protecting one’s rights after a school bus crash, victims and their families may want to consult an attorney.
Source: Winston-Salem Journal, “School bus crashes into garbage truck in Trinity, driver cited,” Jan. 24, 2013