Imagine sending your child to school and believing that he or she will be safe on a field trip. You trust the teachers and drivers, and you don’t think anything will go wrong.
However, a driver makes a mistake that leads to a serious crash. Now, you’re facing the loss of your child and have to question everything you thought about the safety of the school and the nature of its faculty. That’s a horrible feeling and one several families are dealing with now in a crash that made national news.
A driver in a fatal school bus crash has been released following a detention hearing in New Jersey. He’s accused of making an illegal U-turn that resulted in the bus crossing three lanes of traffic and causing a fatal collision.
The man will need to report to court personnel twice per week and surrender his driver’s license as a result of the crash. The 77-year-old man faces two counts for vehicular homicide. He’d been driving one of three buses of third-graders from a school in Paramus on a field trip. An affidavit states that the man missed a turn for the Waterloo Village historic site, so he attempted to make an illegal U-turn on the interstate. He merged onto Interstate 80 and crossed three lanes of traffic heading toward the median. The bus struck a dump truck, which ripped it apart. A 51-year-old teacher and 10-year-old girl in the bus were killed, while over 40 others were injured in the collision.
It’s been discussed that the man previously had his license suspended 14 times between 1975 and 2017. They were generally for administrative reasons, such as failing to pay parking tickets.
If you have lost a loved one or if you were injured in a truck accident, an attorney who is experienced in personal injury cases can help you understand how to seek compensation from the at-fault parties.
Source: Connecticut Post, “Bus driver in fatal school bus crash to learn detention fate,” May 30, 2018