South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog
As the school year comes to a close, parents have a legitimate concern for their children who ride on school buses. Children tend to get spring fever around this time of year so it is important to remind them about school bus safety in order to prevent them or other pedestrians from being involved in a school bus accident in Port St. Lucie or elsewhere in the state.
Not only do we trust the school system to educate and care for our children during school hours, but most of us rely on them to transport our kids safely to and from school. Palm Beach injury lawyers know that the highest risk of a school bus accident is from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. time periods. Pedestrians in and around schools and walking children are also at high risk.
A recent 6:30 a.m. bus accident at Lake Worth High School has parents thankful their children are safe. The Examiner reports that a bus driver employed by Palm Beach County School District suffered a heart attack and lost control of her bus while going to pick up some kids on her route. Fortunately she didn’t have any students on the bus but a bus attendant was on board at the time of the accident. The driver drove into some hedges, through a fence and around a pole before hitting the fence again. The bus attendant managed to pull the emergency break to get the bus stopped. The attendant was not hurt in the accident but the driver was taken to JFK Medical center in critical condition.
In this instance, a poor health condition was the contributing factor causing the accident in which no one but the driver was hurt. However, in many cases the common causes of a bus accident are related to driver inexperience, mechanical issues related to poor maintenance of the bus or driver carelessness. Serious injury and even fatality can occur from these kinds of causes which direct negligence towards the school bus operator or the school system who employs the drivers.
If your child has been injured in a school bus accident in Fort Lauderdale, Margate, Port St. Lucie or West Palm Beach, contact the personal injury lawyers and wrongful death attorneys at Freeman, Mallard, Sharp & Gonzalez. Call us at 1-800-561-7777 for a free and confidential appointment to discuss your case today.