By: Indhira Benitez
Unlike the usual bus stories reported in the news, this one sheds a less distasteful light on buses and the companies that back them. On Monday, March 12th, police reported the death of a person involved in a bus collision that occurred in Upstate, New York, involving a bus carrying a college lacrosse team from Vermont. A trooper says the bus had 40 on board and was carrying men from St. Michael’s College to a lacrosse game in Westchester County outside New York City when a car spun out on the wet highway and hit the bus. The bus landed on its side off the road.
It is no secret that buses have a propensity to receive negative attention for lack of safety. The Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics makes it a point to report yearly statistics for the type of bus and truck related accidents, and driving violations, which occur. The CNTBS includes factors such as state, make and model of bus or truck, speed limit to factors as specific as race of the driver. In this case, a wet road caused an automobile to crash into a bus, which led to the unfortunate death of one individual. Accidents are inevitable; the only alternative to decreasing the rate of fatal collisions is exercising a reasonable standard of safety when driving, especially in inclement weather. Should bus and truck drivers exercise a higher standard of safety, considering the sizes of the vehicles they operate and the amount of damage that a bus or truck can cause in an accident? Despite the answer to this, it is important all drivers exercise some standard of care when driving to prevent these accidents from happening.
