Updated on: 11/22/2019
Three children were hospitalized last Friday morning in Aberdeen when their school bus was struck head-on by a car. The driver of the bus was also taken to the hospital, but was not injured.
The Aberdeen School District bus was transporting 32 students to Miller Junior High School, according to KOMO. The incident occurred as the bus was turning east onto Harriman Street.
Two students on the bus and two in the car were taken to Grays Harbor Community Hospital, Aberdeen police said. KOMO reported that another student was taken to the hospital by their parent. There is no update on the condition of the children.
The crash is still under investigation.
School Bus Accident Statistics
School bus accidents in the United States are a rarity, especially when you consider that some 480,000 school buses carry 25 million children to and from school each day. That’s over half of America’s schoolchildren.
Accidents such as the one above should not scare parents from letting their children ride the bus. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that from 2004-13, just 106 people – both children and adults – were killed while riding or driving a school bus. Sixty-one were passengers; 45 were drivers. Those numbers equate to just six passenger fatalities a year. Considering the number of children that ride the bus and the estimated 10 billion miles a year school buses cover, busing is extremely safe.
More than 40 percent of all school bus injuries are a result of a vehicular accidents – collisions between a school bus and another vehicle, according to a 2006 report by the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice.
Legal Options In A School Bus Accident
In the event of a school bus accident in which your child was injured, you are probably wondering what your legal options are. A negligent bus driver, poor bus maintenance, unsafe driving, failure to use proper safety signals, as well as an overcrowded bus, can all lead to a school bus accident. Of course, the negligence of other drivers on the road is one of the main causes of school bus accidents.
To begin the process to recovering compensation for your child’s injuries, contact an experienced attorney with a strong track record representing school bus accident victims and their families.
The award-winning team of personal injury lawyers at Davis Law Group, P.S., work on a contingency fee basis, meaning there are no up-front costs and all attorney's fees are paid after the case. Call our office at (206) 727-4000, use the chat feature below or fill out the contact form on this page to get started.
