Our Texas bus accident lawyers know that you might have already seen some news about the Thursday crash of the Megabus in Litchfield, IL that killed 1 young passenger and sent around 48 more to the hospital with injuries ranging from minor to severe. 81 people were on the Megabus at the time that it lurched out of control and rammed head-on into a concrete bridge support on I-55.
The double-decker bus was traveling from Chicago to Kansas City at the time of the crash. The deadly Megabus wreck on I-55 happened about 55 miles northeast of St. Louis. The damage to he front of the Megabus was so severe that rescuers needed to use ladders to extract the injured through the windows of the upper deck of the bus.
Reportedly, several witnesses heard a tire blowout on the bus just before it crashed into the concrete bridge support on I-55. Our Texas bus accident lawyers note that the Megabus was apparently traveling at about 65 mph when the deadly Megabus wreck on I-55 occurred.
Aditi Avhad, 25, was sitting at the front of the bus on the upper deck with her parents on her way back to her college town when the Megabus crashed. She was fatally injured in the accident.
A Megabus company spokeswoman said that the bus involved in the deadly wreck on I-55 was fairly new, manufactured just last year, and that the bus had undergone a full preventative maintenance check, including tires, within the past week. She said all of their buses must undergo such checks every 10 days.
Our Texas bus accident lawyers have been writing this summer about the critical need to check your tires’ condition regularly. Especially in the summer sun and heat, tires age faster, and become more prone to blowouts, failures due to over inflation or under inflation, and tread separation. In excessive heat, tires may not make the full mileage recommended by manufacturers before you need to replace them with new ones. And hidden defects that result during manufacturing can result in sudden blowouts even in fairly new tires.
Megabus USA LLC requires its drivers to take 9 hours off to rest between scheduled shifts, which exceeds federal safety standards. The federal safety standards in this regard are alarmingly low. Drivers also receive extensive classroom and hands on driving training according to Megabus. And the company has the highest rating (“satisfactory”) with the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration). (Source: Associated Press, 8/3/2012.)
But controlling a large, double-decker bus after it’s just had a tire blowout, presents a serious challenge for which few drivers will feel adequately prepared. Modern vehicles must have ESC (electronic stability control) systems to help them stay on course and on the road in event of emergencies. For instance, when an ESC system detects a vehicle veering off course, it will automatically apply one or more brakes to try to slow the vehicle’s spin and keep it going in the intended direction. But this crash involved a double-decker Megabus, and information was unavailable regarding an ESC system on the bus.
Our Texas bus accident lawyers had written about a year ago on the rather low federal safety standards governing coach bus travel. Our article followed a deadly accident on I-95 in New York that killed 15 people. Several fatal, high profile bus accidents have led to closer examination of the lax rules and practices that allow coach bus drivers to work excessively long shifts and allow them to drive with minimal safety training.
Learn more about the still low safety standards governing commercial vehicles and what you might do to help ensure your safety by reading the linked article by our Texas bus accident lawyers.