LAFAYETTE, NY — Twenty six people were rushed to the hospital following a chain-reaction accident that happened in Lafayette, New York on Thursday, November 6th, 2014. The news article from Syracuse online said that the crash happened around 2:30 Thursday morning.
New York State Police have said that they thing 26 people were hurt when a Pinehill Trailways tour bus collided with a car and a tractor-trailer on Interstate 81. Authorities think the car struck a guard rail before it crossed over the highway and hit another. After the car came to a stop, the bus struck it as it laid across the road. The bus then hit the tractor-trailer.
The driver of the bus, as well as 25 passengers were taken to the hospital for unspecified injuries.
Representatives from the New York State Police are investigating the accident.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
With any kind of accident like this, I cannot stress enough how much acting quickly can make all the difference. Why? Well in the United States bus companies like the one involved in this accident are required to carry a minimum of 5 million dollars in insurance, which may sound like a lot of money, but when you’re talking about the medical bills of 26 people, this can quickly dry up. With the first-come, first-serve nature of these policies, the slowest to the table is probably going to be up a creek without a paddle. I’ve seen this happen numerous times, where the victims would have been fine had they acted sooner, and I’m talking a matter of days, not weeks or months.
Now, if I were willing to bet, the driver of the bus is probably going to face the fault in the accident. Why? Well the news said that a tractor-trailer had already stopped for the car in the road. If the tractor-trailer driver had the time to both see the vehicle, and stop for it, why did the driver of the bus not do the same? If the bus driver was hypnotized by the road or nodded off at the late hour the accident took place, it could explain why they didnt see the car, or the tractor-trailer that had stopped for it. In any case, the victims in this accident that move first are going to fare the best depending on how the facts fall into place.
–Grossman Law offices
