A Horrific California Tour Bus Accident Results in Multiple Fatalities

The California tour bus that rear-ended a semitrailer on a highway near Indian Canyon in California’s Desert Hot Springs is believed to have been traveling at highway speeds at the time of this horrific bus accident in late October. At least 13 people died and many more suffered critical injuries when the bus slammed into the slow-moving truck. Investigators from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration will be investigating this accident for several more weeks before they issue their final report.

At least one news report about this bus accident indicated that the company which owned the tour bus had previously been sued twice for other crashes, one of which resulted in three fatalities. The bus driver in this accident owned the company that operated the bus, but he was also one of the fatalities in the accident.

Bus accidents like this one that happened on an open highway with no readily apparent safety risks raise the question of which parties bear the liability for the injuries and casualties suffered by the bus passengers. Early reports indicate that the bus that was involved in this accident had passed all required safety inspections and had not known mechanical issues that would have led to the crash. Individuals who were injured in the accident and families of those who died as a result of their injuries will likely seek legal remedies based on bus company’s or the driver’s alleged negligence in operating the bus.

Bus accidents pose a unique challenge for an attorney who represents an injured victim because the number of victims in any serious bus accident is likely to be larger than in a typical automobile accident. Multiple personal injury lawsuits will likely be filed following a bus accident, each of which will seek different amounts of damages as a function of each party’s separate injuries. Competing negligence theories can complicate the resolution of the individual cases, whereas the single defendant will likely have a better opportunity to establish a uniform defense against all of the cases.

If you have suffered injuries in a bus accident or in any other large-scale accident that involved a single party’s negligence, your best option for legal representation is to work with attorneys who have the knowledge and experience to manage these complications. The attorneys at Freeman & Freeman in the greater Los Angeles area have represented negligence victims in bus accident cases and other similar situations for many years. Please contact us to schedule a consultation on how we can help you to recover the largest possible damages award to compensate you for injuries that you have suffered in an accident.