There isn’t a settlement that could compensate for the loss of your two-year-old daughter. However, Audryana Gonzalez’s family will use the $1 million settlement they have just received to set up a trust for her older sister, who was at the scene of the bus accident and saw Audryana die.

The toddler was with her mother outside their home in Sanger, California, picking up her older sister from the school bus stop. As her sister alighted on the other side of the street from the house, little Audryana darted in front of the bus. She was killed instantly in the bus accident.

The family filed a lawsuit against the Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission for compensation for Audryana’s death. The crux of the lawsuit was that the bus accident would not have occurred if the older sister had been dropped off on the same side of the street as their house. Instead, she was dropped on the other side of the street, necessitating her mother and sister to cross the street to pick the girl up.

In fact, as part of he settlement, the Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission agreed to make sure a student enrolled in headstart would be dropped on the same side of the street as her home. In the absence of this, a driver would take the child across to the other side, and drop her at her doorstep. This new rule would be applicable to children below the eighth grade.

Attorneys for the family say this was the main reason the lawsuit was filed – so that parents of headstart students could be aware that they could insist that their children be dropped on the same side of the street. As the attorney for the Gonzalez says, it is the right of the parents to demand that their child be dropped on the same side of the street.

The Fresco County Economic Opportunities Commission was unprepared to admit any responsibility or share any blame for Audryana’s death. In fact, the settlement only came a few days before the case was due to go to trial. The family was first offered $250,000, and when they refused, the amount was raised by another three quarters of a million dollars.

Audryana’s death has brought an important issue to light. The headstart program provides for children from economically disadvantaged sections of society to receive special coaching to prepare them for learning by the time they get to age 6. Students who use these programs are entirely dependant on the system to get them to and from their schools safe and sound. It’s a tragedy when the system fails to take their safety concerns seriously. Audryana’s family deserves every cent of their settlement.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Its not often you hear of bus accidents that have nothing to do with the state of the bus or the condition of the bus driver. This morning, a dump truck rammed into a bus in Chinatown in New York City, sending the bigger bus onto a sidewalk. At least one person has been reported dead in this truck accident.

The Fung Wah bus had its cargo doors open, and was stopping to pick up passengers, when the dump truck rammed into its rear. The impact was strong enough to send the bus careening off its path. It first struck a lamppost, and then a fire hydrant. The front of the bus smashed into the storefront of a building, which houses the United Commercial Bank.

A 57-year-old woman, who was standing waiting for the bus, was killed when the impact of the accident sent the bus off course. She was declared dead at the scene. She hasn’t been identified yet, but news reports say she’s Asian.

At least 4 people in the bus suffered serious injuries. The driver and two passengers were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. A fourth person in the bus was also taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, and has been reported to be in stable condition. The driver of the dump truck, meanwhile, has also suffered injuries, and has been admitted to a hospital. A Breathalyzer test at the scene of the truck accident revealed that the driver was not intoxicated at the time of the pedestrian accident.

However, he does seem to have been very reckless here. According to eyewitness reports, the dump truck clipped at least three vans along the way as it began its journey from the Manhattan Bridge. Other eyewitness reports have confirmed that the dump truck was speeding as it came along. That there was just one casualty, and just a few injuries in this accident was the result of the good fortune of the people who were waiting to board the bus. According to reports, there were at least 20 of these people, and they all ran for safety when they saw the bus had been pushed in their direction by the impact.

From the impact of the truck accident, which sent a massive bus out of the road and onto the sidewalk, it’s obvious that the force of the impact must have been huge. This generally points to excessive speed. The police will no doubt want to question the dump truck driver, who has not yet been identified, when he recovers from his injuries.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

When the bus carrying 27 Montana prison employees rolled and crashed on Interstate 90 near Warm Springs, the fiberglass body of the bus disintegrated. The framework was crushed like a shoebox, and it’s actually a miracle more people were not killed in the wreckage. When the wreckage had been cleared, one woman was killed, and 26 others were injured in the crash.

Now Jaime Ryan, the daughter of Sonja Ryan, the woman who was killed, is suing the bus company. She has filed a wrongful death complaint seeking unspecified damages.

The accident occurred on November 16, 2007, and was traced to the bus swerving to avoid a deer nearly a mile north of the Glen exit. The out-of-control bus rolled over before coming to a rest on its side. The impact of the crash was deadly, with the framework being crushed beyond recognition. It took two tow trucks to straighten the wreckage sufficiently enough for it to be towed away.

The bus was a 30-seater 2007 Diamond Coach bus and was reportedly new. The company that owned the bus at the time of the accident, Tucker Transportation, insisted that safety had been paramount to the company.

It really couldn’t have been that paramount after all if the bus could just collapse like a house of cards after rolling over. Pictures of the wreckage showed what looked like a toy bus that had been taken apart. The other occupants of the bus were extremely fortunate.

The case is reported to be at a preliminary hearing. At least three other lawsuits have been filed in the case, including those by Douglas Jager, Kevin Hart, Mathew Montez Michael Fuller and Richard Smith Marvin LaTray. The reasons for the bus disintegration are being looked into at this point in time.

However, there is some evidence that safe guards in the bus were sorely lacking. The complaints indicate that there were no restraints, and there was no roll bar. This lack of safety measures is seen to have caused the kind of damage that was seen after the crash.

Ryan’s lawsuit cites the driver’s negligence and carelessness as the cause of the accident. Only Tucker Transportation has been named as a defendant. Jaime Ryan is seeking survival damages for her mother’s estate.

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

For those who take the importance of a child car seat lightly, there was a lesson to be learned from a school bus accident in Chino Valley, California. The bus, which was carrying school children, took a bumpy ride after being hit by a car before coming to a stop. The only thing that stopped kids from pinballing all over the bus and getting serious injuries were the fact that they were all strapped in car seats.

How important cars seats are in protecting kids from injuries can be seen in this one instance.

The accident occurred on the 19th of February at the intersection between Monte Vista and Eucalyptus. It was 7:25 am and the eight children, all aged between 3 and 4, were off to a Head Start Program. A white Infiniti, witnesses say, ran a red light and came towards the bus, hitting it from the side. The impact of the collision was strong enough for the bus to veer off road and through patches of shrubbery. It struck three parked cars on the way before coming to a stop in a parking lot. It was a bumpy ride for sure, but none of the kids in the bus suffered major injuries. They were all strapped safely in their car seats. According to the manager of the First Student Bus Company, it’s common practice at the company to put kids under 40 pounds in weight in child car seats that are secured with seat belts.

The bus driver and two other adults in the bus also suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital. Regardless of the lack of major injures, witnesses report that the accident had a devastating impact. There was a loud explosion like noise, witnesses said, and one of the cars that the bus struck on its way off the road was turned over on its side and crushed under the impact.

This is what car seats are supposed to do. They are supposed to protect our kids when adults make mistakes on the road, and they are supposed to keep them safe regardless of the nature of the accident. This is why car seats are recommended in cars for children.

When a defective car seat, however, makes its way into the marketplace, the result can never be good. The Evenflo recall of car seats has come in the wake of allegations of defective car seats that have led to the deaths of some children. Considering how helpless kids are and unable to protect themselves in the event of an accident, a car seat company that puts defective car seats in the market has much to answer for.

Parents in Chino Valley have more than just divine intervention to thank for the safety of their kids today.

If you have a child who was hurt in a bus crash, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury law firm. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Last Wednesday a bus owned by Capricorn Bus Lines, heading back to Houston from Mexico, overturned near Victoria, Texas, killing one passenger and injuring 44 others. One of the passengers had to have her arm amputated as a result of the accident.

Now, new reports say the bus owner, which earlier went by the name Flores Charter and Tours, settled a lawsuit in 2002 regarding an accident in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. In that accident at least 46 passengers were injured, although court records fail to mention if any of these injuries later resulted in death.

In Wednesday’s accident, police suspect the driver, who probably should not have been driving anyways, might have fallen asleep behind the wheel. 42-year-old Roberto Garcia Cruz, driver and employee of Capricorn Bus Lines, had three prior drunk driving convictions, and had a commercial drivers license that did not allow him to drive the bus outside of Texas state lines. Capricorn Bus Lines insists they check the driving records of every driver before they are hired, but, as of yet, they have failed to explain why Cruz was still hired.

Although Capricorn by itself does not have the permits to run buses outside the state or out of the country, it leases its services – and this is where it starts getting really complicated – to another company, International Charter Service, Inc. (ICS), a Houston based company. Following Wednesday’s rollover, new investigations have revealed at least 19 citations involving ICS. These include just about every mechanical defect that can lead to an accident - from tire thread separation and engine oil leaks, to broken windshields and damaged brake hoses. Log books were found to be insufficiently maintained. Drivers in many cases were not able to prove how many hours they had been behind the wheel. On at least two occasions, drivers were detained because it was thought they were behind the wheel for too long.

These leasing alliances are the reason many transportation inspectors find it difficult to place responsibility, when accidents like the one that occurred on Wednesday take place. Much like nursing home companies that use all kinds of devious ownership and management manipulations to cover their tracks so as to protect themselves from abuse allegations, bus companies too, it seems, have perfected the skill of weaving a fine web of management and leasing alliances, making it difficult, if not impossible to assign blame.

If you or a loved-one has been injured or killed in a bus crash caused by the ignorance or negligence of either the driver or the company, contact the California personal injury lawyers at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

New facts are coming to light in the case of the five-vehicle crash that killed a Stockton, California resident in Amador County on December 3rd.

The crash which involved a bus on its way back to San Francisco from Jackson Rancheria Casino also injured more than 10 passengers.

It was initially believed that a Dodge driven by a 75-year-old Stockton resident veered into the bus which had more than 40 passengers aboard. The impact, California Highway Patrol earlier believed, sent both the Dodge and the bus off the road, but not before slamming into three other vehicles – a Honda, a Toyota Camry and another car. The bus tipped over on its side with the passengers trapped inside. The driver of the Dodge who has not yet been identified was killed. Earlier investigations concluded that he was at fault.

Now, more detailed investigations and witness accounts are pointing to another possible cause of the multi vehicle accident. According to California Highway Patrol, the Honda veered into the wrong lane, and sideswiped the bus. The Honda driven by 63-year-old Yonn Moeun then spun out of control and careened into the Toyota Camry which was right behind the bus.

The Dodge, it’s now believed tried to avoid the accident but failed to get out of the way of the bus as it veered off the road.

Moeun also suffered severe injuries and is undergoing treatment at Mercy San Jose Medical Center in Sacramento County, California.

California Highway Patrol officials say they might consider filing charges against him.

If you’ve been injured in an accident caused by the reckless driving of another party, you may be entitled to claim damages for your medical expenses. Call the experienced California car accident attorneys at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.