A bus accident outside of Phoenix, Arizona has claimed the lives of six (6) individuals, while injuring the remaining sixteen (16) occupants, according to an Associated Press article. The crash occurred approximately 25 miles south of downtown Phoenix on the Gila River Indian Reservation near the community of Sacaton at 5:30am on the morning of March 5th 2010.
Authorities stated that six people were ejected from the bus after it hit a pickup truck and rolled over, causing the roof of the bus to be crushed and all of the windows to be knocked out. Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said two men and four women were killed in the Phoenix bus crash. The bus, traveling from the central Mexican state of Zacatecas to Los Angeles was operated by Tierra Santa Inc., a Van Nuys, California bus company.
In addition to the 6 deceased passengers, 9 individuals were listed in critical condition at Phoenix-area hospitals. The driver of the bus was listed in critical condition and the disposition of the remaining passengers was not immediately known.
While details of the accident have yet to be confirmed, authorities have stated that the bus hit a pickup traveling westbound on Highway 10 in the pre-dawn hours of March 5th, veered onto the left shoulder of the road, then overcorrected in the opposite direction and rolled once before landing on its wheels.
The bus accident attorneys at Panish Shea & Boyle LLP have long maintained that buses, especially tour and long distance commuter buses, which travel on our highways, are ill-equipped to protect their passengers. Despite vast knowledge in the bus industry that bus accidents like the one that happened in Phoenix occur, these buses do not have seatbelts. The U.S. National Highway Safety Bureau made seat belts mandatory equipment in passenger vehicles in the United States in 1968.Additionally, bus roof structures are not designed in such a way to protect the occupant survival space in foreseeable rollover accidents.
Details regarding this horrible Phoenix bus accident are still being uncovered and the bus accident attorneys at Panish Shea & Boyle LLP will continue to monitor new information regarding the crash as it becomes available.
