a list of bus accidents
Topic: news
this article only shows the well known bus accidents, one other one that i know of is the accident on w. dodge street in omaha involving a seward bus that accident killed 3 students and one adult....the blog that i will post after this will let you go to a site where you can watch simulations of the crash from different angles.

Deaths, injuries in past bus accidents

By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Wednesday, August 30, 2006

More than 20 years ago, a speeding Greyhound bus carrying 30 passengers smashed into the rear of a truck on the Thruway near Kingston, killing three people and injuring 21.

The crash on Jan. 21, 1983, was called the worst bus accident in the state in more than 10 years. The bus was heading to Montreal from New York City and was in the right lane, as was the truck, State Police said.

Troopers said the bus was traveling at about 75 mph when it plowed into the rear of the truck which was going 60 to 65 mph. The impact crushed one-third of the bus.

In February 1999, another Greyhound bus heading to Montreal from New York City hit a patch of ice and overturned in a Northway median, about 10 miles south of Plattsburgh, injuring 26 of the 35 passengers on board.

The driver, from Brooklyn, told police the bus fishtailed on the icy road and he lost control. It careened down the center median, spun around and flipped onto its side.

In February 2004, a Canadian charter bus rammed into the back of a tractor-trailer at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on the Northway in Essex County, injuring 55 people. The Canadian driver failed to stop when he approached a line of cars at the checkpoint.

And, in January 2005, a charter bus carrying members of a Canadian junior hockey team collided with a tractor-trailer in western New York, splitting the bus in half.

The bus rear-ended the truck, which was parked on the shoulder of Interstate 390, about 27 miles south of Rochester. The truck driver, who was outside his rig, and three bus passengers were killed.

then there was the Oct. 16 crash.

The accident occurred when a charter bus slammed into Kozlowski's overturned semi on I-94 near Osseo. The bus was filled with 44 students, teachers and chaperons from Chippewa Falls High School returning from a marching band competition in Whitewater. The crash killed five and injured 29.

and now---Monday, aug, 28th, 2006 bus crash near new york....cause still unknown. bus rolled twice into median--killing 5 people including the driver.

bus accident
Topic: news
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060829/bus_crash_060829/20060829?hub=CTVNewsAt11

please copy and paste this to see pics and video and read articles about the greyhound bus accident in new york yesterday

greyhound bus accident
Topic: news
5 die in Greyhound bus accident
Updated: 8/28/2006 10:44 PM
By: Staff

Police say five people have died in a Greyhound bus accident on the Northway between exits 30 and 31. The Director of Emergency Services for Essex County says 45 people were onboard bus number 4014.

Greyhound says the bus left New York City at 1 p.m., and made stops in Albany and Saratoga Springs. It was on its way to Montreal.

The driver reportedly lost control, crashed through guardrails and went down an embankment. It overturned at least twice before landing upside down on the median. There is no word yet on the cause.

The Northway remains closed to all traffic between exits 30 and 31. We have crews on the way to the scene, and will have more details as soon as they become available.

Greyhound officials have set up a phone number for those who believe their loved ones may have been on the bus. That number is 1-800-972-4583.

tracking buses----trailways for now
Topic: news

August 24, 2006
In an age when people look twice at rental trucks and consider airplanes to be loaded missiles, the motorcoach industry is taking its own precautions.
Wednesday, Randy and Stephanie Futral, who own the 15-bus Memphis Trailways and Starkville Trailways, showed off a global positioning system -- funded by the Department of Homeland Security -- that means anyone with Internet access can trace a Trailways bus on their computer screen.

"The driver can hit a panic button if the bus is overtaken, and immediately alert authorities where the bus is," he said.
Trucking companies and motorcoach lines have had GPS systems for nearly a decade. What they haven't had is a way to let law enforcement and the general public monitor the intelligence.

With a $1.5 million grant from Homeland Security, Trailways is wrapping up installation of an Internet-based GPS system that also monitors the speed the bus is traveling, direction, weather conditions, even how long the driver has been at the wheel.

Trailways, which has 70 franchisers across the nation, is the first motorcoach line with the capability.

"We all notice if a rental truck is parked in front of a building," said Mark Szyperski, sales director for Trailways Transportation System. "A bus is often stopped in front of a building. If you see the driver walk away, you don't think much about it."

Since most buses can go about 1,000 miles on a full tank of fuel, a stolen or hijacked bus, he said, could be in New York or Washington before it had to refuel. "You can pack a lot of explosives on an empty bus," Szyperski said. "With this system, we're able to find the bus. We know exactly where it is."

In a milder frame, the system also means parents can track the charter bus that is carrying their children's soccer team or football team.

"It's a real selling tool for us. Now we can give the group leader a passcode and the bus number, and they can see where the bus is at all times. They don't have to call to find out when the bus will be home," said Stephanie Futral.

Drivers initially weren't crazy about the monitoring, Randy Futral said, until they realized it also meant they couldn't be blamed for being late when they weren't or cajoled into going out of their way to pick up extra passengers.

"If a whole busload of people misses a show because they say the driver was late, it's a little hard to be the driver," Szyperski said. "Now we can look and see that he in fact was there on time, like he said he was."

The Futrals bought the 20-year-old Starkville Buses in 2003. In 2004, they bought the Trailways franchise, and added the Memphis operation early this year.

Since then, they've added two coaches, including an executive sleeper coach that is large enough to accommodate university teams, for instance, that want to sleep on the road after a late game.

--Jane Roberts:

--------------------

Memphis Trailways

President: Randy Futral

Web: starkvilletrailways.com

greyhound pulls out---others take over---again
Mood:  cool
Topic: news


Indian TrMonday, August 14, 2006
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press
HOLLAND -- Greyhound Lines' loss is Indian Trails' gain.

On Tuesday, the same day Greyhound Lines stops rolling into Holland, Owosso-based Indian Trails Motorcoach will pull in.

"We recognized that many travelers would be left without daily bus service when Greyhound Lines announced the abandonment of service to Holland and South Haven," said company President Gordon Mackay in a press release. "Our mainline route between Chicago and Flint relies heavily on passengers transferring from other points. In order to preserve that connecting service and continue to provide service to the residents of the area, we felt compelled to add the best level of service we could."

indain trails is interested in adding more stops along the Lakeshore, said Ken Henry, vice president of operations for Indian Trails, which started in 1910.

"If Greyhound decides to abandon Muskegon, we may look at a route that includes Grand Haven," Henry said. "A lot of our primary east-west business depends on the feeder traffic from the north."

While Greyhound offered two daily round trips from Holland in recent years, Indian Trails will offer one from Grand Rapids to Holland then South Haven and Benton Harbor.

At Benton Harbor, this coach will connect to westbound service with stops in Gary, Indiana, Hammond and Chicago.

At the Chicago Greyhound station, passengers can connect to all points west and south. Eastbound connections are also available at Benton Harbor via connection to Greyhound service.

The fares are slightly less than Greyhound rates, Henry said. For example, a one-way ticket to Chicago from Holland is $32.25, about $5 less than Greyhound charged.

The company is primarily a charter bus service. Only 11 of the company's 46-bus fleet are used for regular route service.

As a result, the buses have the feel of charter buses, Henry said. All are wheelchair accessible, feature live satellite TV service, enhanced leg room and extra wide seating.

In its new territory, Indian Trails will operate from Holland's Amtrak Depot at 171 Lincoln Ave. and from the Phoenix Plaza on Phoenix Rd at Int. 196 in South Haven.

The new Indian Trails route will provide a link between Amtrak trains in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. Passengers arriving in Kalamazoo on Amtrak's Wolverine service will make a direct connection to a noon Indian Trails coach bound for Grand Rapids and then to Holland and South Haven.

Amtrak passengers traveling through Holland and South Haven on the Pere Marquette and arriving in Grand Rapids at 10:20 p.m. will be able to reach Kalamazoo via the returning Indian Trails coach departing Grand Rapids at 10:50 p.m.

"With gasoline and costs of driving one's personal vehicle constantly on the rise, we're we're confident that passengers will find this new service to be economical and useful for their travel plans," Mackay said.

bus fire
Topic: news
this is wicked
must watch this
link to video

bus accident
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: news
this is a story that has been in the news for a while. the info about a cell phone and radio is new info. just thought i'd share this with everyone....just another reason not to talk on the phone even if he wasn't.....they think he was if i am reading this right.


PHILADELPHIA (AP) - July 20, 2006 - The mother of a girl who lost her hand in a bus crash that injured dozens of children on their way home from a field trip is suing the driver, the bus company, and other parties involved in the accident.

Makeba Fitzgerald alleged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the driver, 18-year-old Kevin Talbert Jr., was distracted by his cell phone and a radio while driving children home to Philadelphia from the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

The suit also claims that Talbert should not have been driving, since federal law prohibits anyone under 21 from driving a commercial vehicle between states. His employer, Yellowbird Bus Co., of Philadelphia, is named as a defendant. "They booked the trip," Bernard Smalley, Fitzgerald's lawyer, said Thursday. "They knew he would be crossing state lines."

A preliminary police report on the July 5 accident near Aberdeen, Md., found that a truck cab driven by Michael Schultz went out of its lane on northbound Interstate 95 and hit the bus on its right side. The bus swerved into the median and back across both lanes of I-95, turning over on its left side and coming to rest on the shoulder.

Nearly 60 people were injured in the crash, including Fitzgerald's daughter, 8-year-old Deneik Brownlee.
Deneik was thrown from the bus and ended up with her right arm pinned under it. Her hand was severed, and she suffered multiple fractures to her right elbow and severe trauma to her shoulders and left arm and hand, according to the lawsuit.
She is now recuperating at a Philadelphia hospital.

The bus was one of six returning to Norris Square Day Camp in Philadelphia from Baltimore.

Smalley said it's not clear whether Talbert was using his phone at the time of the accident.

The lawsuit maintains that both Talbert and Schultz were driving unsafely.

Cowan Systems, a Baltimore trucking company that employed Schultz, was also named as a defendant.

An attorney for Schultz, of Northeast, Md., and Cowan Systems did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

The suit, filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, alleges negligence, infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages.