{"id":8034,"date":"2020-01-08T22:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T03:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10028\/uncategorized\/tour-bus-wreck-in-pennsylvania-kills-injures-60-people\/"},"modified":"2020-01-08T22:00:52","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T03:00:52","slug":"tour-bus-wreck-in-pennsylvania-kills-injures-60-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/article\/tour-bus-wreck-in-pennsylvania-kills-injures-60-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour Bus Wreck in PA Kills and Injures 60+ People"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, the overnight wreck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike killed five people and seriously injured sixty others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to investigators, the Z&amp;D Tours bus rolled downhill and careened off an embankment prior to overturning. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two large trucks then collided with the wrecked bus. Investigators ruled out icy conditions as a cause, but they still do not know what triggered the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/9-old-among-5-killed-141209307.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">crash<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forbes Hospital President Mark Rubino said the facility treated victims for both physical and psychological injuries. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe people coming in were not only physically injured, but they were traumatized from a mental standpoint as well,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Lawsuit Location in Tour Bus Wreck Claims<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.law.com\/Default.aspx?selected=2216\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Venue<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the legal term for the place where an attorney files a legal claim. Generally, venue is proper in the county where:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The accident occurred, or<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The victim\/plaintiff resides.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many vehicle collision claims, venue is irrelevant. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most accidents occur close to the victim\/plaintiff\u2019s home. But tour bus crashes are different. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The above story is a good example. Those involved were from New York, the crash occurred in Pennsylvania, and the bus was bound for Cincinnati from Rockaway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both venue choices have pros and cons. <\/span>The county of the victim\u2019s residence is usually the most convenient place to file a claim.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many injured victims cannot easily travel, even a short distance.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, most or all of the evidence is probably in the county where the wreck occurred. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This consideration is significant, since the victim\/plaintiff has the burden of proof.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other factors to consider include the judge\u2019s temperament, state of the court\u2019s docket, and the jury\u2019s likely makeup. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All these factors could affect the odds of winning at trial, which in turn affects a case\u2019s settlement value.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Commercial Operator Duty of Care<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Legal responsibility plays a part in this process as well. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most people know that, because of their education and experience, doctors have a high duty of care. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What might be an accidental mistake in some situations is usually actionable negligence in a doctor-patient context.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same thing is true of bus drivers, Uber drivers, taxi drivers, and other commercial operators who transport people for a fare. In many states, these drivers are common carriers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A common carrier is almost an insurer of safe conduct. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s much higher than the duty of reasonable care which normally applies in these cases. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, it is easier to win at trial, which means the case has a higher settlement value.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This duty is not just operational. Tour bus companies also have a duty to protect passengers during their journeys. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, someone must do things like clean wet spots on the floor and break up squabbles between passengers before they turn violent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In New York, the higher duty of care does not apply. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore, victims might be better served bringing a claim in another state, if the option is available.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Evidence in Bus Crash Claims<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A good venue choice and a high degree of legal responsibility are not enough to obtain damages. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As mentioned, evidence is critical as well. Victim\/plaintiffs <\/span><a href=\"\/practice-areas\/personal-injury\/auto-accident-lawyer\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">must establish negligence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many vehicle collision claims, the police accident report provides much of the needed proof. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, that\u2019s often not the case in tour bus wrecks. That\u2019s especially true if the bus driver was killed. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Obviously, a police report contains only one side of the story in these cases. Additional evidence in these claims often includes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Event Data Recorder<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: EDRs are much like the black box flight data recorders in commercial airplanes. In car crash claims, EDRs store operational information like vehicle speed, steering angle, and brake application. Experienced attorneys, sometimes working with accident reconstructionists, can put this evidence together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Safety Maintenance System Report<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The SMS report is essentially a multi-state driving record which includes things like crash history, prior traffic citations, HOS (hours of service) compliance, and vehicle maintenance history.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Electronic Logging Device<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Before the ELD mandate took effect, drivers used paper log books to track HOS. These log books were easy to fake. ELDs are attached to the drivetrain. So, attorneys have absolute proof of when the driver was behind the wheel.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Circumstantial evidence can be important as well. The above crash occurred shortly after midnight. Most people are naturally drowsy at this time of day, no matter how much rest they had the night before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additional risk factors involved in drowsy driving cases include sleep apnea and recent schedule changes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tour bus drivers often suffer from sleep apnea, mostly because these individuals sit for long periods of time. People with sleep apnea essentially nap all night. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They do not get any deep, restorative sleep. As for schedule changes, a work schedule may be different, but the body\u2019s circadian rhythm remains the same.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Damages in a tour bus crash usually include compensation for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seemingly straightforward collisions are often extremely complex. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For a free consultation with an <\/span><a href=\"\/contact-us\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">experienced personal injury attorney in New York<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, contact Napoli Shkolnik . We have several offices in the New York\/New Jersey\/Connecticut tri-state area and other parts of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overall, the overnight wreck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike killed five people and seriously injured sixty others. According to investigators, the Z&amp;D Tours bus rolled downhill and careened off an embankment&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[774],"tags":[824,851,891,964],"class_list":["post-8034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-napoli-shkolnik-news","tag-auto-accidents","tag-personal-injury-lawyers-near-me","tag-bus-accidents","tag-personal-injury"],"acf":[],"page_builder_type":"gutenberg","gutenberg_data":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}