In October 2016 a bus rear-ended a big rig truck killing 13 and the victims had no advance warning because state workers didn’t do their job properly says a report recently released by the NTSB. The National Transportation Safety Board report shows the California Highway Patrol briefly stopped traffic on Interstate 10 near Palm Springs because of freeway utility work. The truck was in a lane and didn’t move again once the road re-opened. A bus carrying people from a casino rear-ended the big rig at 76 MPH puching the truck more than a dozen feet. The crash killed the bus driver and a dozen passengers. What else did the investigation reveal?
This is another case where looking at all of the facts was critical. The bus driver was going 76 MPH so he was exceeding the speed limit, the truck driver didn’t move for 2 minutes after the road reopened because he had fallen asleep after working illegally long hours. CalTrans didn’t have a proper traffic management plan for the road stoppage which meant the CHP officers didn’t realize the truck hadn’t started moving when the road re-opened. As a result the bus driver had no advance warning there was an obstacle on the road.
The causes, blame and liability are multifaceted. At the end of the day the truck driver, Bruce Guilford was charged with 13 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, 12 counts of felony reckless driving causing injury and 17 misdemeanor counts of reckless driving causing injury. The NTSB also noted that the truck driver fell asleep and both the truck and bus drivers were fatigued. The bus driver also had untreated and poorly controlled diabetes although it’s unclear if he had blurred vision at the time of the accident which is a common result of untreated diabetes. Caltrans was negligent for not having a plan in place that could have prevented much of the death and injury that was caused that early morning.
We represent people who are injured because of the careless and reckless acts of others. At the end of the day your case can only be settled one time and you need to know all of the facts beforehand. The reason that insurance companies have paid our clients in excess of $130,000,000.00 is that we get the facts and are not intimidated at the prospect of going to trial when they refuse to follow the law. We help with serious issues that require serious representation. We are the Law Offices of Guenard & Bozarth. We have over 80 years of experience in our plaintiff’s only law firm. Call GB Legal 24/7/365 at 888-809-1075 or visit www.gblegal.com We Can Help!
