Liberty, Missouri: May 2005
Continued from Part 1. In May 2005 on SR 291 close to Liberty, Missouri, a school bus carrying 53 elementary school children began to accelerate as it approached an intersection at the bottom of a slight hill. The bus driver, thinking that the brakes had failed, tried to steer the bus onto the shoulder of the road and away from the traffic in the intersection.
The bus moved onto the shoulder, hit a light pole, and struck a stopped Lincoln LS, which pushed the Lincoln into a GMC pickup truck. The three vehicles then moved forward together into a drainage ditch at the corner of the intersection. The Galveston school bus accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC note sadly that the drivers of the Lincoln and the GMC pickup truck were both killed in the collision. 48 of the 53 school children and the bus driver were injured in the crash.
NTSB investigators found the brakes of the bus to be in good working order. The driver was tested and found not to be under the influence at the time of the accident. And our Galveston school bus accident attorneys mention that the driver also possessed all proper licensing and training credentials. The NTSB concluded from these facts, eyewitnesses, and the bus driver’s account that the accident was consistent with the signs of driver pedal misapplication of the accelerator rather than the brakes:
An apparent brake failure or loss of braking;
The increasing speed of the bus just before the accident;
The wide-open engine throttle heard by the witnesses; and
The stressful situation of approaching the intersection and its traffic while behind the wheel of a bus that appeared to be out of control.
Falls Township, Pennsylvania: January 2007
In January 2007, a school bus driver loaded 10 students in the parking lot of a high school in Falls Township. His was one of several buses loading students, and there were also groups of students on the sidewalk near the parking lot. The driver said that he had loaded the students, put his foot on the brake pedal, and started the bus.
That’s when the school bus began to accelerate, jumped a curb, and ran into a group of students on the sidewalk. Our Galveston school bus accident attorneys remark that the bus struck 18 students. The bus driver said that he was hitting the brake harder and harder but the bus wouldn’t slow or stop. He finally steered the school bus into a concrete retaining wall, which finally stopped the vehicle. In all, 22 people were injured in the accident.
Accident investigators found no sign of mechanical failure in the bus or its brakes. The driver was properly licensed, trained, and not under the influence at the time of the accident. Witnesses and the bus driver heard an engine revving. Significantly, our Galveston school bus accident attorneys emphasize that the school bus the driver drove on that day had pedals of different heights, sizes, and separation than his usual bus. It also had the engine in the rear of the bus rather than in the front. The investigators concluded that pedal misapplication due to unfamiliarity with the particular school bus involved was the cause of the accident.
Continue to Part 3 to learn about possible ways to prevent pedal misapplication injuries and fatalities from school bus and heavy truck pedal misapplication accidents.