Several Injured in Tulare Tour Bus Accident
A Tulare, California, tour bus accident ended a bus trip on Monday night. The bus crashed into a truck in the Central Valley late Monday night.
Fronteras Del Norte, the tour company, runs a regular shuttle excursion up and down the West Coast. This tour bus was making the routine trip to Yakima when the bus rear-ended a big rig. The big rig suddenly hit it’s brakes which caused the tour bus to crash into it. There were thirty-six people on the tour bus when it crashed.
The reports showed that the safety of tour buses in November Fronteras Del Norte had the worst rating for bus maintenance, by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The Fronteras Del Norte company then was put on an alert status. Another report showed that the company had multiple serious violations over the last twelve months. Some of these violations include vehicle maintenance as well as hours of service violations.
The hours of service violations are violations that include allowing drivers to drive beyond 14 hours. It may also mean that the driver did not retain his last seven days worth of driving logs.
The Tulare bus crash ended up injuring seventeen people. They were then sent to the local hospital. The remaining passengers complained of pain but told the emergency workers that they did not need to go to a hospital. All of the injuries sustained in the Tulare Tour Bus accident were deemed as minor.
The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) has cracked down on the United States Department of Transportation as of November since a severe accident was faulted to a brake malfunction.
The public is increasingly agitated about the continued use of unsafe buses. Officials says that unsafe buses should be stopped before a crash occurs, not after.
The case of Fronteras Del Norte, the company was cited for non-functional lights with some other operational issues. The owners of the tour bus company admitted that in the past his buses could have been better maintained.
The passengers that were injured in the Tulare Tour Bus crash are being assesed by medical personnel before getting released from the hospital.
Daniel A. Gibalevich
DAG Law Firm
