Truck Injury Lawyer Blog : Truck Accident Lawyer & Attorney: Morgan Adams : Contingency Fee Truck Accident Lawyer

The Western Section of the Tennessee Court of Appeals recently decided that buses in Tennessee are not required to have seat belts. In this case a man was thrown from a bus and received a catastrophic brain injury. The Court of Appeals stated that since the federal government does not mandate seat belts on buses, pursuant to FMVSS 208, the state can not require them. This decision, finding that federal law preempted the issues, was contrary to a 2008 decision in Texas that found seat belts could be required on buses.

It is clear from my prior blogs that I believe seat belts are needed in buses. They. Save. Lives. Many of my clients would be alive, and others able to live a normal life, if they had simply been able to wear a seat belt while on a bus.

Seat belts are on airplanes. If a seat belt will save you after  falling 20,000 feet from the sky, and the cost of the seat belt and the increased fuel costs are more than offset by the increased safety of having them, shouldn't we have seat belts on buses? 

If seat belts on buses don't matter, why are they provided for the bus driver? 

Certainly seat belts should be provided on school buses, but the Court of Appeal's decision would eliminate the states ability to require that. For an article on the need for seat belts on school buses, and the costs, click here. Please see my prior blogs on this topic.

Regardless, unless there is an appeal (and I hope there is), the current law in Tennessee allows bus companies and owners, who know that the lack of seat belts on buses is a horrible problem, to continue escaping liability for the deaths and injuries that occur when buses are ordered without seat belts. 

In the case before the Western Section the jury found that the profoundly brain injured man, who was thrown from the bus due to a lack of seat belts, was entitled to over 8 Million in lost income and other damages. The decision by the Western Section Court of Appeals made it clear that the verdict will never be collected from the bus company, the one company that is directly responsible for purchasing and operating an unsafe bus without seat belts. 

The full opinion can be read here.

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While I have been advocating for seat belts on buses for some time, see my prior blogs, others are happily now joining the fray. Recently Sholnn Freeman , of the Washington Post, wrote an excellent article on the need for seat belts and the increasing dangers of bus travel. Ms. Freeman's article, As Bus Travel Grows, Probe of Fatal Crash Revives Push for New Safety Rules, can be found at: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042003716.html 

Much like tractor trailers, buses would be made much safer with seat belts, standards for roof crush, and anti rollover devices such as electronic stability control.

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This is the type of matter my firm handles on a nationwide basis. I hope the families read my posts on how to hire a qualified lawyer for this type of case. It is clear they will need legal help, and someone with experience.

This bus crash, and the fatalities, should never have happened. First there were apparently no seat belts on the bus, a subject I have posted on extensively. Failure to have a seat belt means that passengers will be ejected from the bus, most likely resulting in a fatality. Secondly, the bus had false DOT numbers and other problems that clearly made it a danger. Given the DOT numbers were false we know a few things:

First we know that there is probably no insurance.

Second we know that the Casino is responsible for the wreck under a theory of negligent hiring and/or broker liability. The leading case in this area is Schramm v. Foster, 341 F.Supp.2d 536 (D.Md. 2004) Essentially those that hire folks to drive have a duty to check them out and make sure they can drive safely. Had the casino or broker checked out this bus company it is clear they would have found the sham and never hired this bus and driver. The Casino failed to do so, hired an unsafe, unregistered, and unknown driver because they were cheap. 10 people paid with their lives.

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A Greyhound bus crashed July 10, 2007, injuring or shaking up the 49 people on board.  A passenger with known mental issues grabbed the steering wheel from the bus driver. See: www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp

This crash is reprehensible because it was not only easily preventable, but because Greyhound has known for years this type incident occurs without protective barriers for the driver. In fact our firm sued Greyhound over a similar crash in 2001 which resulted in our clients death. The Greyhound bus driver in our case stated that drivers had been asking Greyhound for years for protection from passenger assaults and interference with the the drivers. Greyhound records show that, before the crash my firm handled in 2001, there were 42 similar incidents of passengers interfering with the driving of a bus, with 5 of the incidents resulting in an accident. The experts in our case agreed that an inexpensive protective barrier was called for, readily available, and should be installed on passenger buses.

After significant discovery, effort, and work we were able to prove Greyhound's poor practices and decisions endangered our client and the motoring public. Our clients eventually made a decision to settle their case prior to trial and Greyhound stated they were going to install protective barriers on their buses. Clearly they did not. A companion case to ours, with a paralyzed passenger,  went to trial and received a multimillion dollar verdict which was upheld on appeal.  See: Surles ex rel. Johnson v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 474 F.3d 288 C.A.6 (Tenn. 2007)

Greyhound should be punished for allowing this type of accident to happen again. They clearly don't understand the need to protect their passengers!

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