The teen had been walking to the Broward mass transit bus stop site with his mother when she had a problem with her shoe and fell. She urged him to hurry and catch the bus so he wouldn’t be late. He ran to the side of the large glass doors. A passenger shouted to the driver that there were “runners.” For reasons that aren’t clear, the driver shut the doors, closing in on the teen’s hand. Then, the bus pulled away, dragging the teen alongside and then partially running over him, all while his terrified mother watched and horrified bus passengers could hear his cries.

That was four years ago. Now 18, the boy has graduated from high school, but his life has been forever altered by the severe injuries – including traumatic brain injury – that he suffered that day. He was in a medically-induced coma for a full month. He struggles with neurocognitive disorder. He grapples with depression and central auditory processing disorder, which means he has trouble understanding speech. He also contends with neurospychological impairment in processing speed and memory. His motor dexterity is impaired, and he suffers with a wide range of other physical limitations.

Now, county commissioners have agreed they will pay the family $850,000 for their claim. That might sound like a lot, but it will likely only cover a fraction of the boy’s losses and he won’t even receive it all right away. They’ll still have to fight for some time longer. That’s because personal injury claims against government agencies are capped at $300,000, per the state’s sovereign immunity law. However, the remaining $550,000 will be available only if the state Legislature approves a claims bill. The bill has already been introduced by a Broward County Democrat in the state Senate, but there still needs to be a companion bill filed in the state House. That process could take years.

Meanwhile, the family’s medical bills have already topped $640,000.

State prosecutors insisted throughout this case that plaintiff’s hand wasn’t actually stuck in the door and that the teen actually ran alongside the bus before falling.

A passenger testified he saw the boy running alongside the bus, attempting to get on. He shouted to the driver to stop. Instead, the door closed. Asked why he didn’t stop, the driver could only respond with a series of, “I don’t know.” Passengers then said they heard a sickening, “thump.”

The driver was initially suspended without pay for a full two weeks and then demoted to a coach service attendant, cleaning and servicing the buses. However, when he appealed that ruling he was later given his old job back.

Recently, The Sun Sentinel reported that in addition to numerous safety concerns about the fitness of Broward transit drivers, many passengers have reported some drivers to be discourteous and unprofessional.

Last year, the Sentinel reported the Broward County Commission intended to crack down on accident-prone mass transit bus drivers. An investigation by the paper in 2013 revealed that Broward County Transit drivers with long histories of accidents and citations were often allowed to stay on the job, requiring at least five accidents in a rolling 24-month time frame to warrant termination.

Call Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Additional Resources:

Broward settles case of teen run over by bus, Feb. 1, 2017, By Brittany Wallman, The Sun Sentinel

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Baugh v. Cuprum – $11 Million Ladder Injury Verdict Affirmed, Jan. 31, 2017, Fort Lauderdale Bus Accident Lawyer Blog

These operations are overseen by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) which reports varying levels of adherence to federal safety laws between carriers. The agency even encourages passengers to, “Look Before You Book” to determine which might be potentially unsafe.

Yet a recent investigation by journalists at CNN revealed that even a company with a “satisfactory” rating may not abide by basic safety rules.

Greyhound is a bus company that ferries some 18 million passengers on its buses every year, its fleet traversing an estimated 5.5 billion miles across the U.S. each year. It’s been well-established by government research that when there are charter bus accidents, driver fatigue is a factor in 37 percent of all cases.

In order to combat this, Greyhound implemented the “150-mile rule,” referred to internally as “G-40.” It’s listed in the driver manual and it’s referenced in training. G-40 states that drivers have to stop every 150 miles to get out of the bus, walk around the vehicle and check the tires, stretch, refresh and complete a series of “short’term alertness management actions,” or exercises, to help remain “completely alert.”

However as it turns out, along the bus company’s listed regular overnight routes, there is no mention of those stops every 150 miles. That’s because as it turns out, G-40 is more of a guideline than a rule. Drivers aren’t required to take action and, according to the attorney of one bus accident victim, “They don’t enforce their 150 miles safety rule because it costs them money.”

In a deposition required as a part of a personal injury lawsuit, the CEO of Greyhound answered that drivers are in charge of ascertaining their own level of fatigue. He answered that drivers are expected to stop and to report those stops, but conceded the company had no enforcement of that rule. He also stated that on some of the longer routes, drivers were permitted to go longer if they felt they were Ok not to stop. Asked whether he would be Ok with a driver on one of these longer trips traveling 333 miles at a stretch without stopping, he answered, “It would be fine with me.”

In 2013, a driver on one of these routes did not abide the 150-mile rules. Other drivers recalled seeing the bus swerving. Passengers noted the driver’s red eyes as they boarded. Greyhound denies the driver was fatigued. But around 1:33 a.m., en route to Cleveland from New York, the bus crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer on the interstate in Pennsylvania. The force of that crash ejected one passenger, killing her, and injured several others. Among those was an 18-year-old aspiring opera singer, whose voice box was crushed in the accident.

One of those accident victims filed a personal injury lawsuit against the company and was awarded a total of $27 million in damage – including $4 million in punitive damages after the jury determined the bus company gave contradictory language in rules and training related to fatigue levels and failed to enforce internal rules. Jurors also opined the company demonstrated reckless indifference to passenger safety. They tacked on $150 to that punitive damage award, as a reference to the company’s failure to abide the 150-mile rule.

Call Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Additional Resources:

Asleep at the wheel? Greyhound fails to enforce its own safety rule, May 24, 2016, By Sara Ganim and Scott Zamost, CNN

More Blog Entries:

Fatal Florida Car Accident Spurs Lawsuit Against Uber, Driver, Deputy, May 25, 2016, Fort Lauderdale Tourist Injury Lawyer