Marion County, Tennessee Bus Crash Injures Whitwell Elementary School Students

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Morgan Adams

Once again the failure to have seat belts on school buses has resulted in injuries to our children. In this Nov 12, 2008, wreck involving Whitwell Elementary School students I believe many of the injuries could have been prevented if only there were seat belts on the bus. I have blogged on this topic in the past.

I believe the school board and the government has responsibility for these injuries by allowing a school bus on the roads without seat belts.

Liability will be determined with the help of a DriveCam video the Tennessee Highway Patrol is evaluating. You can see my earlier posts on DriveCam for more about this system. Essentially the system preserves a video clip of a few seconds before the wreck and a few seconds after the wreck.

I would encourage the families with seriously injured children involved in this tragedy to contact a lawyer that can adequately investigate and pursue the various claims and parties involved. Given significant enough injuries potential defendants would include the the drivers (apparently there was a small pickup that may have contributed to the wreck), the bus manufacturer, the operating company (probably Laidlaw as they currently have the DriveCam system installed on the school buses they operate); and the government.

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Bus Crash in California Leaves Ten Dead and Colusa Casino Possibly Liable Under Both Broker Liability and Negligent Hiring Theories

Posted on October 7, 2008 by Morgan Adams

 

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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