More than 40 Injured and 2 Killed in Dallas Rollover Accident
Many of our loved ones, especially senior citizens, like to spend time traveling to various places with groups of friends. Often, they choose to charter a bus, because it’s more freeing and less stressful than driving. But what if the bus company they trust to get them to and from their destination safely isn’t taking its responsibilities seriously, and the accident was the result of negligence on the company’s part?
Early this morning, a private charter bus carrying 45 senior citizens from Dallas to a casino in Oklahoma overturned on the Bush Highway in the Dallas suburb of Irving. The seniors ranged in age from about 66 to 80 years old. The circumstances surrounding what happened to the bus before it rolled over are troubling, and deserve a serious investigation.
According to several reports, the bus was traveling northbound in the right lane of the highway, near Belt Line Road, when it suddenly swerved to the right and hit a rubber barrier on the right side of the highway. The bus then careened to the left and onto the center median, where it skidded across the grass and actually rode on top of a concrete barrier, before it turned onto its right side, where the bus’s emergency doors were located. Before emergency personnel arrived, several passersby were able to take a few of the able-bodied passengers out through the escape hatch, but most had to wait until emergency crews could get them out.
All told, two passengers were confirmed dead and more than three dozen were injured, including sixteen who were labeled “critical” when they arrived at the hospital. Injured passengers capable of walking were loaded onto a DART bus for transport to Baylor Irving Hospital. Others were transported by ambulance to Baylor Irving, Parkland Memorial Hospital, Methodist Hospital and Las Colinas Medical Center.
In any investigation of this accident, examiners will have to find out why the bus swerved to the right, and what made it swerve so far to the other side of the highway with so much speed. Did something on the road cause it to swerve? Was the driver properly trained and skilled? Was the driver impaired? Was the bus mechanically deficient, had the bus been recalled for safety reasons? Had it been maintained properly?
Many questions need to be answered, and those answers are crucial in evaluating why this bus went out of control, rolled over, and killed two people. Poor maintenance and driver error are common causes of bus accidents such as these. It’s possible the bus company put profits over safety and maintenance, and that can result in tragic accidents such as this. If you or a loved one have been injured killed in a bus accident, call the Texas Bus Accident Injury Lawyer at Hill Law Firm today for a free consultation.