Articles Posted in Bus Accident

A Tuesday morning Chicago bus accident on the city’s Southwest Side, injured 10 passengers and the driver, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Chicago Transit Authority bus was a northbound Ashland Express bus that reportedly struck a light pole on the 2500 block of South Ashland Avenue at about 7:30 a.m., the Chicago Fire Department reported. The accident injured 10 passengers and the driver. Two were in serious condition, eight were in fair condition and one was reported in good condition.

The Chicago Breaking News Center reported as many as 10 ambulances responded to the bus accident. The Transit Authority is investigating, however the cause of the accident has not been reported.

A suburban Chicago man recently died in a crash with a school bus full of college students from the University of Wisconsin at Madison on Dec. 6. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the chartered bus was taking 17 students from UW’s German Club home from Chicago’s Chirstkindlmarket, traveling along Interstate 90 just outside Chicago. A sedan entered the highway, immediately veered across traffic lanes and ended up sideways in the path of the bus. The crash killed the driver instantly, the article said. Luckily, no one on the bus was seriously hurt and no other vehicles were involved.

The article doesn’t give a cause for the accident, but given the description of the accident and details in the article, weather looks like an important factor. Unfortunately, Illinois has seen several weather-related traffic deaths in the last few weeks, including one that killed two elderly parishioners from an Edgewater church. Life must go on even when the roads are snowy or icy, but drivers should be aware of the danger. The Illinois Department of Transportation maintains a page with tips for safe winter driving.

As a Chicago bus accident lawyer, I happen to know that bus accidents are statistically rare. According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, buses were involved in just 0.5% of all accidents in 2006; only “other vehicles,” such as motor homes and tractors, have lower accident rates. The numbers for intercity buses are even lower — 0.1% of fatal crashes. Part of this may be because buses are driven by professionals with special licenses, which means drivers have special training. They are also generally at work when they drive, which gives almost everyone an incentive to behave better than they might when driving on their own time.