Bus Accident and Brain Injury - St. James Missouri School Buses Involved in Chain Reaction Wreck with Semi

I am a brain injury lawyer. What does that mean? It means I primarily represent individuals who suffer brain injuries as a result of the wrongful conduct of others. I represent them in lawsuits to recover compensation against the wrongdoers of such conduct. To take a look at what this means in general terms, check out my web pages: http://tbilaw.com and http://subtlebraininjury.com. For more about me and my background, go to http://gordonjohnson.com.

Why is a brain injury lawyer writing about bus accidents? Because one of the chief culprits in the medical community is how little attention is given to brain injury (especially when most injuries are called "minor") and bus accidents have as much potential for brain injury as any civilian catastrophe as imaginable. Let me explain:

First, virtually no one in a bus is ever seat-belted. This is particularly true in school buses. Second, sometimes people are even standing in buses, especially municipal buses, like on Chicago’s CTA. If there is a sudden stop or collision, none of the safety developments that have been created to safeguard occupants in automobiles, will protect the passengers on a bus. Even notice that most bus drivers are now required to fasten their seatbelt before they drive off? Why is no one requiring the same for the passengers?

Let’s further examine what we know about safety and contrast that to buses. First, the safest position in a car, is facing straight ahead, seat-belted, with an airbag and a headrest to reduce the whiplash forces in case of a wreck. Each of these elements is important to provide maximum safety. Now, think of a bus.

Facing straight ahead. We know that if an occupant is even looking to the right or the left at the time of a collision, this significantly increases the risk of injury, because it substantially increases rotational acceleration. For more on the biomechanics of brain injury go to http://subtlebraininjury.com/biomechanics1.html Well in a bus, not only are the occupants not necessarily looking straight ahead, they may actually being seated sideways. This is a guarantee that they will be exposed to more force.

Seatbelts. There must be a bus out there somewhere that has seatbelts on it, but it is not a bus I have ever ridden on. In fact, the school bus industry has been fighting the implementation of seatbelts for years. How can we tolerate such idiocy?

Airbags. Without seatbelts, there can be no airbags. Primarily, the seat belt protects the passenger from hitting their head or being thrown from the vehicle. It is the airbag that significantly reduces the whiplash forces to which a person is exposed in a motor vehicle collision. We can’t even demand airbags until we can insist that occupants are seated in a position from which they can be protected.

What we must have happen for buses to become as safe as cars, is a change in the culture of greed. All bus seats should face forward. All bus seats should have seatbelts. Each of these items will add to the cost of riding buses, and that is the reason they are not implemented. Yet, in a society which puts such a premium on safety on the roads, how can we tolerate allowing greed and profits to take precedence?

The disturbing concern I have as I listen to the news reports of the St. James school bus crash is the continuous references to "minor injuries." While everyone must be relieved that there were not more fatalities, brain injury and concussion are too often referred to as just such minor injuries, and they can leave serious and lasting disability.

The symptoms of concussion can often be subtle, not manifesting themselves significantly until the day after the crash. What is important today and in the next few days is to monitor the kids for signs of confusion, amnesia and headache. See http://subtlebraininjury.com

Contact the Brain Injury Law Group: 1-800-992-9447

This site is brought to you by the advocates of the Brain Injury Law Group, a community of plaintiff's trial lawyers across the United States united by a common interest in serving the rights of persons with traumatic brain injuries and a common commitment to fully understanding the anatomic, medical and psychological aspects of TBI.