Friday, August 29, 2008

Pedestrian killed in Fresno Bus Accident had Right of Way

The police investigation recently confirmed that 74 year old man who was killed in a bus accident in Fresno had right of way when the accident occurred.

Initially, it appears that a Fresno Area Express bus was maneuvering a U-turn from Fresno Street onto M Street when the victim, who was crossing M Street at about the same time, was struck by the bus.

After the investigation, the police believe that the bus was about to stop at the intersection when all of a sudden the light turns green. So it proceeded to turn into the intersection, thus hitting the pedestrian which the driver didn’t probably notice. It means then that the victim was in the right.

Statistics shows that there are at least 360 million bus passengers in the US each year, while there are 30,000 commercial buses for tours, charters, special operations and regular route services.

With the rise in numbers is the rise in bus accidents. From year 1990 to 2001, there were recorded 50,000 to 63,000 bus accidents in the US. The figure includes school, transit and intercity buses. Death toll is rather low, fortunately, but injuries reached a staggering figure of 15,000 to 21,000.

In this particular case, civil suit for recovery of compensation must be vehemently and strongly pursued by the family of the old man. This is not to enrich them but to vindicate them for the loss of a loved one.

If the bus was operating illegally such as when it turned out that the bus company was not authorized to operate as a carrier in intestate commerce, then it may be facing more legal repercussion that its owners or operators care to imagine.