Last Tuesday’s school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota was the most disastrous in the state in the past two decades. Four children were killed and many were injured as the bus belonging to the Lakeview School toppled over on to its side.

Now, new clues are emerging as the investigation into the crash progresses, and the tiny community of Cottonwood, where the crash occurred, begins to seek answers as to why its young had to go in this manner.

The first clue seems to point to a van which, as a witness stated, ran a stop sign and rammed into the side of the bus causing the driver to lose control and eventually leading the bus to roll over.

Matters are still under investigation, but there have been media reports that the driver of the van, a 23-year-old woman, possibly didn’t have a valid driving license and that she had been cited in an earlier incident in 2006, where she pled guilty to driving without a license. These reports haven’t been confirmed, but if there is any truth to these reports, we hope parents won’t hesitate to pursue legal action against the woman.

Another issue that’s come up after the crash, and one that has a potentially greater impact for Cottonwood residents is the stretch of highway where the crash occurred. Reports are emerging that Highway 23 has been dangerous for a while now and authorities have been lax in their response to fears about its safety.

Highway 23 is the artery that connects southwestern Minnesota with other parts of the state and it’s just two lanes wide. Authorities have long denied that the road is dangerous. According to Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) engineers, it’s a fairly flat road with a shoulder that is 10 feet wide. There have been also no major traffic accidents at the intersection, they claim. Do we have to wait for accidents like the Lakeview school bus tragedy to wake them up to the fact that something about the road’s design might cause accidents?

The authorities themselves admit that traffic has increased dramatically on highway 23 with at least 4000 vehicles making their way through the stretch on any given day. With such a high volume of traffic on what is still a relatively narrow road for the kind of traffic it handles, chances of accidents are greatly increased. The more vehicles sharing the road, the lesser margin you have to correct your vehicle before an accident.

According to David Sturrock, a professor at Southwestern Minnesota State University in Marshall, the state could do its part to make the intersection less dangerous. In fact he has asked the MnDOT engineers to take a closer look at some of the intersections on Highway 23, where some fairly serious accidents have been reported over the last couple of years.

Do we really have to wait until more people die before we take action? Whatever happened to preventive measures? How many accidents have to occur and how many lives have to be lost before the transportation authorities acknowledge there is a problem?

Knee jerk reactions when a major accident takes place are not the solution. This is not true only for Minnesota, but around the country where badly designed highways regularly maim and take lives with authorities being too slow to respond.

If you have a loved-one who has been killed due to dangerous highway conditions, you need the help of a California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

According to the Ventura County Star, CalTrans officials have agreed to Fillmore city officials’ request to extend the guard rail at the town’s east end near Pole Creek, after a string of accidents made clear how dangerous the curve is.

The Ventura County Sheriff Department still doesn’t have an official tally for the number of accidents that have occurred at the curve, but the past 14 months have seen at least 3 that caused severe injuries. Concerns that cars may drift off the highway into the flood channel are compounded by fears that an accident could damage a 12-inch gas main that crosses the channel.

Moving the main isn’t an option because of the expenses involved, and California Department of Transportation officials have agreed to a request made by the Public Works Department extend the guard rail by 90 feet.

Officials say there’s nothing really wrong with the design of the highway, and accidents that have occurred near the curve were probably due to drunken driving or drivers who just fell asleep at the wheel. In any case, neither CalTrans nor the Public Works Department wants to take responsibility if a major disaster or tragedy does occur, which is why work on the guardrail has been approved.

A dangerous or badly maintained highway can be a causal factor in road accidents. If you’ve been injured in an accident caused by a poorly maintained road, you may be eligible for compensation. Call the California personal injury lawyers at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

A stretch of road in Covina Hills has seen so many accidents that residents in the neighborhood have nicknamed it the “Deadly Curve.” This year alone, two young boys have died on the killer stretch that banks out instead of in, creating a dangerous curve that’s caused more than its share of deaths and injuries.

The narrow two-lane asphalted road is a popular haunt for young men who take advantage of the lack of stop signs or traffic signals. On November 9, a 22-year-old man driving on the road was involved in a rollover, but managed to survive. In June, two boys – one 17 years old and the other 14 years old - were killed when their pickup truck flipped on the stretch, and crashed into a tree. The other boy in the pickup truck, a 14-year-old, was severely injured. Flowers and stuffed toys still mark the spot where they met their tragic, senseless, deaths. An investigation by the California Highway Patrol ruled that excessive speed was the cause of the fatal accident. These were far from the first instances. In December 2005, an 18-year-old man was killed when he lost control of his car on the road.

Now residents have decided they’ve had enough. They’ve launched an effort to force lawmakers to erect a stop sign or speed bump on the stretch, and fix the dangerous curve. Frustratingly enough for them, bureaucratic red tape is getting in the way of their good intentions. The California Highway Patrol says having a speed bump on that stretch isn’t practical because it would slow down traffic. This is somewhat odd considering the CHP holds speeding to be the cause of all fatal accidents on that road, and a speed bump would help control exactly that – speeding.

California standards have to be met before any stop signs or speed bumps can be considered. Other options they propose include creating a recovery area which would lessen the impact of the accident, and a driver feedback service that would alert drivers of their speed. Considering an overwhelming majority of those killed or injured on the road are young men, a driver feedback might not be a convincing mechanism to halt the rate of accidents.

According to Bill Winter, Assistant Deputy Director of Public Works and head of traffic and lighting, “It’s not always an easy answer for these types of things. Ultimately we want to have a dialogue with the community.” One hopes there aren’t more deaths and injuries on the “deadly curve” while he waits to begin his dialogue.

Over the country, badly maintained or poorly constructed roads cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles. The consequent accidents can result in devastating injuries and in many cases, deaths. If you’ve been injured in an accident that’s been caused by a badly designed stretch of highway, call the California personal injury lawyers at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.