Brown County, KS — Last Wednesday, near Hiawatha, there was an accident involving a school bus. Police said that school bus lost control as it was turning on Highway 73 after the driver ran a stop sign.
The bus then overturned, leaving the driver and some of the students injured.
Police said that this happened at the intersection of Highway 73 and 170th Road. The bus driver, Lawrence Gnagi, 74 years old, was headed east along 170th Road that day when he (allegedly) failed to stop at the stop sign for Highway 73.
As a result, his bus flipped over as he tried to turn onto the highway, resulting in some of the 22 students board to be injured. Thankfully, all the injuries appeared to be non life-threatening.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
For all intents and purposes, school buses are “owned” by local governing agencies like school districts, cities, counties, etc. Since there are special rules for filing claims against government-owned vehicles, that means that claims against bus drivers generally have to follow those “special” rules as well.
The article below explains what I’m talking about in greater detail, but the main thing to remember is that the local county (or city) gets to decide what kind of terms they want lawsuits against them to work on. In other words, they get to pick their own punishment, and big surprise, they rarely make it hard on themselves.
Accidents With Government-Owned Vehicles: What You Need to Know Read More >