Bus Driver Allegedly Falls Asleep, Sending Ten Passengers to Hospital
Jan 30, 2013
Washington, D.C. (Law Firm Newswire) January 29, 2013 – A sleeping driver sent ten passengers to the ER.
A charter bus carrying 48 passengers veered off the roadway on I-95 near Aberdeen, Maryland on a recent Friday morning, sending ten passengers to area hospitals – one with serious injuries. According to Maryland State Police, the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
Washington D.C. personal injury David Lietz commented, “If a bus driver falls asleep at the wheel, that is a very serious transgression. It is very lucky that no one was killed in this accident and that the injuries sustained were not much worse.”
Emergency medical responders were dispatched to the scene of the incident on southbound I-95 just before 9:00 a.m. Police say that after the driver fell asleep, the bus drove part way up an embankment before the driver awoke and regained control.
One passenger sustained serious injuries and was taken by ambulance to Baltimore’s Maryland Shock Trauma Center, according to Harford County spokesman Bob Thomas, and nine others with minor injuries were taken to other local hospitals. A subsequent statement from the State Police said most of those passengers went to the hospital for “precautionary reasons.”
The bus, owned by Dawson Bus Company of Delaware, was transporting a group of educators from Newark, Delaware to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The driver was cited for driving a vehicle while fatigued and for negligent driving, according to state police.
David Lietz added, “Driver fatigue is a serious problem that can be easily avoided by strict adherence to the existing motor vehicle regulations, and by bus companies policing their drivers’ hours of service. Hopefully this story of narrowly-averted disaster alerts bus operators to the need for strict oversight of drivers.”
Southbound traffic on I-95 was delayed for two hours. Because the bus may have been damaged in the accident, Dawson dispatched a second bus to transport passengers the rest of the way to Baltimore.
The Commerical Vehicle Enforcement Division of the state police will inspect the bus in order to establish whether any mechanical malfunctions may have been a factor in the accident.
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