Details are emerging after a deadly Megabus accident killed one person and injured dozens of others late last week. We discussed early reports of the accident in our last post and new details have surfaced regarding the maintenance history of the bus.
Representatives from the bus company say that the bus passed a safety inspection only days before the bus accident. It is unclear whether the tires were properly checked as part of this inspection or whether underlying manufacturing defects in the bus caused the crash, which sent the bus veering into a concrete overpass pillar.
The investigation into the cause of the crash is being closely monitored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NHTSA may propose fines and remedial action if it determines that Megabus is not addressing the crash appropriately.
Thursday’s bus accident injured about half of the 81 passengers aboard. Passengers report being flung throughout the bus during this terrifying experience.
“There was a lot of screaming and crying,” said one 16-year-old female passenger who survived the crash. “There was blood everywhere. I was just in shock.”
The teenage girl said that she was thrown from her seat on the second level of the bus down a stairwell leading to the bus’ lower level. “It felt like the bus was going to tip over,” she told the Associated Press.
Another passenger told reporters that the initial moments before the crash felt like the bus ran over a large object. Other passengers have described a tire on the bus blowing out before it hit the highway pillar.
A 22-year-old Chicago man on the bus said that people were panicked and screaming as the bus careened toward the pillar. “Panic at first, then total calm,” he said. “I flew out of my seat and a little girl flew past me. Some people were carrying other people off the bus.”
This is one of many low-fare curbside bus crashes in recent years. The Associated Press reports that 15 people were killed in May of 2011 when a bus ran off of I-95 in New York City. Four people died in a 2010 when a Megabus crashed into a bridge in Syracuse, New York.
One 25-year-old bus passenger died in the most recent Megabus crash. Some of the other passengers are still being treated for their wounds but no other individuals suffered life-threatening injuries.
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