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Bus Accident in Mojave Desert Kills Woman
May 19, 2008

For the passengers on the tour bus from Culver City to Laughlin, Nevada on Saturday, it was supposed to be a casino trip full of fun and games. At about 11 am on an empty stretch of road on Interstate 40 in the Mojave Desert, however, the bus fishtailed and flipped over on its side.

One woman has been reported killed in the bus accident, and at least 21 others have been hospitalized for treatment of their injuries. At least eight of those hospitalized are described as having severe injuries, while 14 have moderate injures. The woman who was killed has been identified as 31-year-old Faith Creer, who was ejected from her seat when the bus toppled over. She died at the scene of the bus accident.

The charter bus, according to the LA Times, was owned and operated by Royal American Tours and Charters, a Glendale based company. Survivors told horrific tales of the bus drifting off the road and into the dirt median before flipping over on its side, and then skidding more than 100 feet. Battered passengers climbed out of the overturned bus through the shattered windshield, and were helped by other drivers who stopped by to help. At least 6 rescue helicopters were called in to transport the injured to hospitals in Apple Valley, Colton, and Needles, California.

Survivors of the bus accident say the driver allowed the bus to drift about 40 feet into the dirt median. It was traveling at about 70 miles an hour at the time. They couldn't say why the driver allowed the bus to drift. When he tried to gain control of the bus again, it fishtailed and flipped over. It then skidded about a hundred feet before coming to a stop.

A massive bus overturning on its side is a nightmarish scenario for those trapped inside, but this doesn't seem to have been the first such bus accident for Royal American. The company had one of its buses involved in a similar accident in 2005, when a bus burst into flames while on its way to a casino in Indio. Although nobody was injured in that accident, we can probably assume that the company's fleet maintenance record may be worth looking into. Both accidents have been intense in nature.

Royal American claims that its drivers are all licensed, and each has a total of more than 10 years of experience to his credit. They are all perfectly equipped to drive charter buses and luxury coaches, their website say.

The coming days will give us more insights into what happened in those crucial moments before the bus accident. The driver, the LA Times says, does not know why his bus drifted. Such excuses are meaningless when people have been injured and one has been killed. The victims and their families deserve to know what happened on Saturday.

If you have been injured in a bus accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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Lack of Safety Standards on US-Mexico Buses Raise Fear of More Bus Accidents
May 09, 2008

Mexican immigrants who cross the border to visit family on buses owned by smaller bus companies might be at risk of accidents, but federal agencies refuse to believe there is a potential problem.

These smaller bus companies offer many Mexican immigrants a cheaper way of getting home. In some cases, a one way ticket costs as little as $70, while the comparative fare on a Greyhound to the same destination would be in the region of $120. That cheap price comes at an even higher price tag though. A spate of recent bus accidents involving buses owned by these companies on their way to and from Mexico has helped turn focus on the safety factor, or the lack thereof.

As recently as January, a bus coming in from Monterrey, Mexico to Houston crashed near Victoria, killing at least one passenger and injuring many others. One passenger lost his arm as a result of the bus accident. The bus, in this case, veered off a highway. The driver was found to have dozed off while driving, and also had the wrong kind of commercial license.

A few weeks prior to the Monterrey - Houston bus accident, there was another crash that involved a bus and a pickup that killed four passengers, including the driver of the truck. In that bus accident, the cause of the crash was much clearer. The driver was on amphetamines at the time of the bus accident. There was also no relief driver to cover for him.

These types of accidents aren't exactly a new phenomenon. They have been occurring and causing injures as far back as 2002. In September of that year, an accident demonstrated how badly these companies and their buses are being run. The accident that occurred in Mississippi took place when the driver and the replacement driver tried to change seats while the bus was going at 70 mph. This kind of foolhardiness would be unimaginable if there were strict safety standards and regulations laid down by the companies who pay these drivers. That is probably not the case, which is why we have bus accidents like these.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, however, maintains that these buses meet the standards of safety in the United States. Their record, the agency says, is no worse and no better than the record of larger companies that travel within the US.

But there's enough evidence that traveling in these buses can be more trouble than you bargain for. One passenger, who wanted to file a lawsuit against a Houston-based company in a bus accident case, was forced to place the notice of the lawsuit in the paper, after repeated efforts to trace the company owner proved unsuccessful. In some cases, suing these companies seems like a worthless exercise because they are not insured.

The companies also seem to do a great job of covering their tracks. Buses are owned by one company and leased by a different company, making it difficult to pin responsibility in the event of a bus accident.

It's unfortunate that these passengers who can't afford better are dumped in unsafe buses with maniacal drivers and shipped across the border. They are people who work hard here, and deserve to know when they leave for a visit home that they are traveling in a safe vehicle with responsible people at the wheel.

The appalling safety standards of these buses seem to be a potential disaster waiting to happen. Going by the nature of the bus accidents and their increasing frequency and intensity, there might be more severe accidents in the future.

If you have been injured in a bus accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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