School Bus & Dump Truck Collide in Glastonbury, 34 Students Injured

Glastonbury, CT — There were a total of 34 students and four adults who required medical attention after a school bus and a dump truck were involved in an accident earlier this week in Glastonbury. Thankfully, none of the injuries were very serious and none of the victims were kept in the hospital for very long. This happened on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Police said that the accident happened at about 10:30 a.m. along Route 17 when a dump truck crashed into the back of a school bus carrying students from John Barry School (5th graders), which is in Meriden. The school bus was apparently stopped at the red light at Route 17 and Main Street when it was hit from behind by a dump truck that failed to stop in time.

The dump truck was owned by a company called Prosperity Trucking. Of the 34 students on the bus treated for minor injuries, all were deemed to be in good condition, as were the 4 adults.

Witnesses to the accident said that the dump truck (which was hauling sand at the time) screeched its tires and locked up its brakes as it tried to stop in time for the red light. The driver wasn’t injured and his identity hasn’t been released yet.

The accident is still being investigated. The school bus was actually being operated by New Britain Public Schools.

Jump to commentary below…

Map of the Accident

View from the Road

Commentary:

If what I’m reading in the news is correct, and this dump truck driver simply rear-ended a bus at a red light, then my next question is: How exactly does that happen…unless the driver just wasn’t paying attention?I think we’re all aware of how bad this accident could have been, so I think the focus at this point should be to investigate and take actions to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Back to my earlier question, you have to why/how this driver somehow missed a red light before taking any corrective action or trying to make things right.

The easy answer is that the driver just wasn’t paying attention or had dozed off at the wheel, but more investigation might dig up something else. often times, things aren’t so simple.

I did a little research on this company and, according to the Department of Transportation, this Prosperity Trucking is based out of Connecticut and is run by the owner – aka, there’s just one truck and one driver. What does that translate to? Well, legally speaking, that means that the company doesn’t have a lot of resources when it comes to handling/investigating/settling accidents like this one. Since the minimum insurance coverage required for commercial trucks can sometimes be as low as $750,000, you can be sure that the insurance company representing the truck driver will be all too happy to fight for every last dollar.

Now, I’m not trying to make this about money, but here’s the hard truth about accidents with many, many victims. The trucking company is bound to use their insurance monies to take care of all the damage their driver caused — which means that there may not be enough to cover, say, 20 peoples’ injuries much less a higher number. Of course, any experienced attorney will tell you that there are often multiple routes to recovery and not all of them are easy to spot until there’s been a deep investigation.

I’m a little suspicious that this driver’s brakes just “suddenly failed” or he just took his eyes off the road “for a minute.” I’m probably a little overly skeptical due to my long career dealing with cases like this one, but I’ve found there are often things that the police and the news media misses in their reports.

 
— Grossman Law Offices