North Carolina Personal Injury Blog - Automobile Accidents

Every 15 Minutes is a fantastic program to combat teen drunk driving.

Randy Appleton — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:51:38 GMT

With end of the school year activities and prom season upon us, keeping teenagers safe behind the wheel is a huge concern, not only for parents and public safety personnel, but for every driver sharing the road. Although there are countless programs available to parents and educators to help reinforce responsible driving among teenagers, few are as visceral and unforgettable as the Every 15 Minutes Program.

In an Every 15 Minutes event, students witness the harrowing effects of a deadly alcohol, drug, or distracted driving related car accident on their own community. After viewing a mock crash, complete with emergency medical response teams, students watch as ‘injured’ classmates are cut from the wreckage with the Jaws of Life, pronounced dead at the scene, or airlifted to local hospitals for trauma services. They witness as another classmate undergoes a field sobriety test, and is arrested, handcuffed, and taken into custody for driving under the influence. During the event, an EMS member dressed as the Grim Reaper wanders the crowd, reminding participants that death is never far from the scene of the crime. Local funeral homes send transport services to retrieve the ‘bodies’ of victims.

In another part of the Every 15 Minutes presentation, while students are gathered to discuss main points of the program, the Grim Reaper visits the classroom every fifteen minutes to remove one student. A police officer enters the room to read an obituary prepared by the student’s parents, explaining the circumstances of their classmate's demise and the contributions the student has made to the school and the community. The student wears pale makeup to simulate death, and is dressed in a black Every 15 Minutes t-shirt. They are then returned to class to wander silently through their day as the “living dead,” unable to interact or participate in the activities around them. Later, the “living dead” students attend an overnight retreat where, in one of the program’s most powerful exercises, they will write letters to their parents that begin, "Dear Mom and Dad, every fifteen minutes someone in the United States dies from an alcohol related traffic collision, and today I died. I never had the chance to tell you......." Parents then write their own return letters, which, along with those from students, will be shared with all of the program’s participants in an assembly the following day.

Response to the program is immediate and positive. Ken Fitzgerald, a retired Emergency Medical Technician who coordinates mock crashes and Every 15 Minutes events in North Carolina knows firsthand how the programs impact students’ lives for the better. He says, “I've had kids come up to me in Wal-Mart months after seeing the mock wreck and tell me, 'After seeing that, I will never drink and drive.' That makes it all worthwhile."

Every 15 Minutes is conducting over forty events for high schools all across the country this year. For more information about their programs and lessons, please visithttp://www.every15minutes.com.

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Randy Appleton

Memorial Day Tragedy on High Rock Lake

Kurt Aktug — Wed, 29 May 2013 17:00:11 GMT

Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the Summer season, ended in devastating tragedy for an Oak Ridge, NC family on Saturday, when a boating accident on High Rock Lake in Davidson County, NC resulted in the deaths of Melissa Chambers Britt, 32, and her three-year-old son, William Jaiden Britt. According to reports, Melissa was also pregnant at the time of her death. Her husband, William Clayborn Britt, Jr., survived the accident.

Authorities with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commision report that the accident occured when a speed boat, driven by Michael Greene, 52, of McLeansville, NC, collided with a pontoon boat carrying the Britt family, as well as Melissa's brother, Michael Chambers. Chambers was air-lifted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center with serious head injuries, but is listed in fair condition and is expected to recover.

According to reports, only the three-year-old was wearing a life jacket. There is no indication at this time that alcohol use was a factor in the accident and no charges have been filed against Greene, but speed may have played a role and an investigation is ongoing. The family dog, also on the boat, is missing.

Boating is a popular recreational activity in North Carolina. Three of the five attorneys in my firm are boat owners. There were nearly 350,000 boats registered in the State in 2011. That same year, according to statistics compiled by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, there were 142 reported boating accidents, 25 of which resulted in 28 fatalities. While these statistics are sobering, the same statistics demonstrate an overall trend toward safer boating habits. In 1973, with just under 105,000 registered boats in the State, there were 54 fatal accidents. The Summer months, understandably, have been particularly dangerous. In 2011, 81% of all boating accidents occurred between May and September. Likewise 68% of fatal boating accidents occured during the same timeframe.

It goes without saying that the Summer months, particularly holiday weekends like Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, can be particularly dangerous. Families take advantage of the warmer weather and spend more time outdoors and on the water. Children are out of school and families take their vacations. The lakes, rivers and inlets are simply more crowded. It is important, therefore, that boat owners operate their boats safely and with the same standard of care with which they would drive a car. This means that taking boater safety courses and the regular use of personal floatation devices (PFDs), by both adults and children, are absolutely vital elements of boating safety. State statistics demonstrate that a lack of formal boating education plays a significant role in contributing to boating accidents. Likewise, the non-use of PFDs plays a significant role in contributing to boating accident fatalities.

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Kurt Aktug

Study: Texting while driving now leading cause of death for teen drivers

Pierce Egerton — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:44:02 GMT

What’s the worst thing a teenager (or anyone) can do while driving?

Drink, of course. Right?

Maybe not – according to one analysis of a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The No. 1 killer of teen drivers is texting.

The analysis, done by researchers at a medical center in New York, estimates that 3,000 teens in the United States are killed annually in accidents caused by texting and driving. Another 300,000 are injured.

That compares with 2,700 young people killed yearly as a result of drinking and driving, according to the CDC. About 282,000 are treated in emergency rooms for injuries caused by drinking accidents.

^{Image/ Ed Poor – English Wikipedia}

^{A driver uses two hand held mobile phones at once, in a NYC traffic jam.}

The chief author of the study is Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center. Adesman and his team examined the CDC’s National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

The nationwide survey, taken anonymously, showed that while driving between September 2010 and December 2011, among 8,947 teenagers aged 15-18, an estimated 49 percent of boys and 45 percent of girls admitted to texting while driving.

Actually, it makes sense that texting would be fated to become the more potent threat. As Adesman, an expert on teen behavior commented: “The reality is kids aren’t drinking seven days per week — they are carrying their phones and texting seven days per week, so you intuitively know this a more common occurrence."

Another trend shown by the survey that we could have seen coming down the road: Texting gets worse as kids get older.

Only 24 percent of 15-year-olds texted while driving. But about 43 percent of juniors in high school admitted that they typed and drove. And seniors? You’d think they’d be more mature. But of the group who would soon be turning their tassels and taking on the world, 58 percent had tapped out texts or emails from behind the wheel.

Yet, at second glance, that makes sense as well. With today’s graduated driver licensing programs, younger drivers get more supervision. Even parents who text and drive themselves might get scared straight after watching their kids do it. But when young drivers get older, legal restrictions on cell use are lifted, supervision is relaxed, and texting rises accordingly.

And Adesman asserts that laws tend to be toothless where texting is concerned.

“When we compared states where there are no laws in effect (barring texting while operating a moving vehicle) and states where there are laws on the books, we found there was no difference in (teenagers’) responses," he said. "Clearly, the laws are not effective."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that driving while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted.

But what to do? Obviously, Mom and Dad are the front-seat soldiers in this battle. If you’re a parent, these 10 tips on preventing teen texting from “The Car Connection” can provide some ideas.

And phones themselves may provide part of the solution to the problem they’ve created. There are apps to prevent a phone from being used to text while driving. But as an article in “Forbes” comments, these require parents to download, install and manage the applications – for kids who might well be tech savvy enough to disable them. The writer goes on to suggest smart phones be made with anti-text-and-drive technology built in – tapping in to a huge market along the way.

At any rate, learning that the danger of texting and driving has reached this level means we have received valuable news.

It is, one might say, a wake-up call.

Related article: UNC’S “Time to Drive” app enhances teen driver education

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Pierce Egerton

Do higher speed limits equal more dangerous conditions?

Kevin Duffan — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:25:12 GMT

As a legislative bill that proposes raising some North Carolina highway speed limits from 70 to 75 races through the Senate, you may wonder if that's such a good idea. It isn't necessarily a bad one. When the Texas Department of Transportation debated raising the speed limit between San Antonio and Austin to 85 mph -- the highest speed limit in the country -- Slate debated whether this increase would cause more accidents. "It’s often assumed that higher caps will make roadways more dangerous, because motorists will exceed whatever ceiling is in place," wrote Katy Waldman.

However, "[i]n a [1996 National Motorists Association] study of 22 states where speed limits were either raised or lowered by five, 10, 15, or 20 miles per hour, researchers found that cars' average velocities did change, but by less than two miles per hour." New York raised its speed limit cap to 65 mph in 1995, and the state's crash rate reportedly decreased by 4 percent. Likewise, Ohio reported a total of six deaths -- the lowest fatality rate in Ohio Turnpike history -- when it raised the speed limit to 70 mph in 2011. Sen. Neal Hunt proposed the bill to "move traffic along" and help prevent people from getting pulled over when there's light traffic and no reason they couldn't be driving a little faster. "You've still got to drive safely," he said.

This isn't to say that faster speed limits are always the answer, but perhaps the higher speed limits don't automatically mean less safe roadways.

About the Editors: The Shapiro Lewis Appleton & Favaloro personal injury law firm, whose attorneys work out of offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, Eastern Shore Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard (include hyperlinks to each of those) as a pro bono service.

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Kevin Duffan

UNC’s “Time to Drive” phone app, like, way maxes teenagers' drivers education

Pierce Egerton — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:38:48 GMT

“There’s an app for that.”

Yo, that line has gotten so stale it’s like all 2011, yo.

OK, that’s enough of my bad imitation of teenager-speak. But there is a new smartphone application aimed at teenagers that’s just out, and it looks pretty good.

“Time to Drive” helps parents ensure their beginning driver gets enough of the right kind of driving practice during the lengthy stage of supervised driving (12 months in North Carolina).

The key words are “the right kind.” For example, in North Carolina, the learner stage can begin at age 15 and lasts 12 months. (Kids can begin driver’s education as early as age 14 ½.) The first learner stage requires 60 hours of supervised driving, with 10 of those being done at night. The intermediate stage can begin at age 16 and requires 12 hours of supervised driving, 6 of those at night.

Sounds pretty rigorous on the surface, but the requirements are really just how many hours and how much at night. The app takes the training several more steps, and in the right direction.

“Time to Drive” was developed by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) and the Center for the Study of Young Drivers. According to a news release, it’s the first research-based iPhone app to help parents and teens with driving practice.

Yes, iPhone – so that’s likely a limitation for the majority of you.

^{The "Time to Drive" app greatly enhances}

^{strategies for teen driver training and adds}

^{detailed record-keeping for official submission.}

But if you use a different smartphone, don’t stop reading. The “Time to Drive” website provides a lot of good tips and strategies you can use without downloading the Apple application or buying a thing. (FYI: All proceeds from the app go toward maintaining the app and supporting research by the Center for the Study of Young Drivers. Price: $3.99 – a little cheaper than I expected.)

First off, “Time to Drive” takes the position that 60 hours is not enough “time to drive.” Based on recommendations from experts on teenage driving, the app sets a goal of 90 hours of supervised driving.

The program progresses in increments of time and difficulty: What to do when the teenager just starting out; after 15 hours of experience; and after 45 hours on the road.

The app keeps performance records for you, including maps of all your trips, and things like the number of “hard stops” – times when a driver doesn’t hit the brake soon enough and brakes too hard.

Goals are quite specific:

18 hours of night driving
10 trips in bad weather
20 trips on interstate highways
25 trips on rural roads
20 trips in heavy traffic

Many states require a record of supervised experience when a teen driver applies for a provisional license. Time to Drive generates an accurate, printable log of driving time and conditions for you, which you can present to the DMV. (N.C. has one log for the first 12-month, 60-hour period, and a second log for the next training period of 12 hours.)

I would also venture to say that a major intangible advantage of the app is psychological. Driving is serious business, and a learning process this involved reiterates that truth.

In the teenage years, a driver’s hand-eye coordination, eyesight, and reflexes are probably as good as they will ever be. But the advantage of experience will be earned only by time. “Time to Drive” gives a teen an excellent head start.

And like they say, if this’ll save the life of one yute, it’s hundo p swaggy.

(I Googled “latest teenage slang,” so those words are probably, like, so last week already.)

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Pierce Egerton

North Carolina Legislators Move To Abolish Auto Safety Inspection

Jim Lewis — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:13:49 GMT

Legislators in North Carolina have announced that they will attempt to abolish the state’s auto safety inspection requirement. The bill will be brought up by a House committee later this week and, if there’s enough support, will move on for consideration in the larger General Assembly.

Legislators who believe abolishing the safety requirement will save drivers money are supporting the bill. The reason they believe it will save money is that each year drivers must pay for a $30 car inspection, of that money, $13.60 goes towards a safety check, the rest is for the emissions test. Supporters of the bill say that it will save taxpayers across the state millions by trimming annual inspection costs.

While everyone is in favor of saving some money, it’s essential that legislators consider the costs of such a change. While it may shave a few dollars from someone’s annual inspection, what about the cost of serious or fatal accidents due to faulty equipment on a car?

AAA of the Carolinas has come out aggressively against the proposed safety change, saying the requirement is essential to ensuring the wellbeing of drivers across the state. AAA says it has statistics which show that car accidents are reduced by 27% in states that have such safety requirements compared to those that do not.

Safety advocates are imploring legislators to take a bigger view of the matter and really consider whether saving a small amount of money is worth a potential major sacrifice in auto safety. Many believe the bill, known as House Bill 89, stands a good chance of passing given the current anti-big-government mood in the state. Hopefully lawmakers in the North Carolina will give the measure proper consideration and don’t choose to sacrifice drivers’ safety to save $13.

About the Editors: The Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton & Favaloro personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Jim Lewis

Loss of 4-year-old in driveway accident brings unbearable pain

Lawrence Egerton — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:14:43 GMT

HIGH POINT, N.C. – She was energetic and talkative – “sassy,” her mother proudly described her. “She could hold a grown folks’ conversation.”

The 4-year-old little girl had three older brothers and a 1-year-old sister. “Her proudest accomplishment was being a big sister,” one of her aunts said.

The accident that took her from her family happened in their driveway about 5 p.m., Monday, Jan. 7, in her neighborhood in south High Point.

_{Image / Wikimedia Commons}

_{(Typical 2006-08 Chevy Trailblazer)}

It bears a striking resemblance to another accident in High Point that hurt another child in October 2011. An investigator for Egerton & Associates law firm examined the vehicle in that incident and found a malfunction in the car’s ignition interlock system: In short, a broken part allowed the gear lever to slip out of the “Park” position. The same potential defect was found to exist in thousands of minivans and SUVs – and later resulted in 807,000 vehicles being recalled. (certain Honda Odysseys and Pilots, model years 2003-2004, and Acura MDXs, model years 2003-2006)

Reports of the more recent accident on Jan. 7, 2013, which took the life of the 4-year-old, said the child was playing behind the family vehicle, a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer. She possibly had gotten her backpack out of the SUV and walked behind it.

The car rolled backward down the driveway, which is on a slight incline. The girl suffered severe head injuries, and was taken to High Point Regional Hospital. She was transferred to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, but died the next day.

The High Point Police Department is investigating the incident. Authorities said they do not believe anyone was in the car when it began to roll. One officer said that traffic investigators were still trying to determine whether the car somehow slipped out of gear and began rolling along the driveway.

We can only hope that investigators will uncover what the cause of the accident was. Such small things could happen that would result in such tremendous loss. Was the gear lever accidentally shifted out of park? Did some vitally important part of the car simply fail?

In October 2011 incident, which Egerton Law handled, a 2-year-old child inside a minivan shifted the vehicle out of park. It then rolled down a grade, causing injuries to two people: a neighbor and an 8-year-old girl.

Federal Motor Vehicles Safety Standards require that a vehicle with the transmission in the park position must not shift from the park position unless a key is placed in the ignition and the brake pedal is depressed. An investigation showed that the vehicle in the 2011 incident could be taken out of park without the key in the ignition and without the brake pedal being used.

As I said, the investigation of the fatal accident of a week ago is ongoing, but one thing is certain – there was no person in the vehicle who could have pressed the brake.

Another thing that is certain now is the depth of this family’s loss. Four years old is such a beautiful age for a child. A little girl who loved “Hello Kitty” and dancing and the color pink has left an empty space in the lives of all who knew her.

It is hard to come to grips with an accident that takes a child’s life. As her teacher said in an interview with Fox 8 News, she felt as if the girl had been her own daughter. “I didn’t think that it – it couldn’t be my kid that that happened to. You hear about it in the news all the time, but you wouldn’t expect it to be yours.”

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Lawrence Egerton

Arrest made in bus-stop hit & run near child’s home; bus continued with usual route to school

Pierce Egerton — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:08:09 GMT

UPDATE:

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A 17-year-old was charged with the hit-and-run accident that injured a 7-year-old girl at a school bus stop Monday morning.

Accidents involving school buses have been occurring with a chilling regularity since last fall. As one reader remarked to me in an e-mail: “The accounts of these incidents really hit close to home.”

He was so right – perhaps on several more levels than he realized.

The late-breaking news accounts still don’t all match, but it appears the child was hit at 4729 N. Cherry St. just before 8 a.m. as she was walking with her older sister to the bus from the family’s house.

Close to home.

View Larger Map

_{Image / Google Maps}

_{Gibson Elementary School at 2020 Walker Road. The school is less than 5 miles from the accident site.The suspected hit-and-run vehicle was found less than 3/4 of a mile from the accident site.}

Edward Rashad Lee Fulks was charged with felony hit-and-run, felony passing a school bus and striking a person, failure to stop for a school bus, and driving without a license, according to a news release from the Winston-Salem Police Department.

The girl was crossing the street when a dark green car went around other stopped vehicles, police said. Reports said the car’s side mirror struck the child in the face. The car then left the scene. A car matching the description of the hit-and-run vehicle was found at the suspect’s home at 116 Cherryview Lane, less than ¾ of a mile from the accident scene, about a 2-minute drive away.

Close to home.

The injured 7-year-old boarded the bus, which went on to school, reports said. The child’s father said that the older daughter ran home and told him her sister had been hit.

He told WFMY News 2:

"She came back this time, she was very frantic and panicking, just crying out of control saying that Kelly got hit so I was thinking she was laying up in the streets, so when I looked out the door, I was like where is she then? And she indicated she's on the bus."

Close to home.

But before he could go check on his little girl, the bus was already gone.

The father, who on camera was obviously distraught but managed to keep control of his emotions, said that he spoke later with a teacher who had noticed that the girl was bleeding after the child came to class. The teacher sent the girl to the school nurse’s office.

The child, who is in the second grade, sustained minor injuries to her face and neck, according to police and school officials. The father said that the bus continued on its route to school with his daughter on board, making the rest of its regular stops on its way to Gibson Elementary School at 2020 Walker Road, about 10 minutes away.

Close to home.

The child’s father told media that the girl could not open her mouth, that her face was swollen and she was limping. News video showed cuts on the child’s face.

Reports Tuesday from WXII 12 and The Winston-Salem Journal said that Fulks was being held under a $10,000 bond in Forsyth County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in Forsyth District Court on Jan. 25.

^{Edward Rashad Lee Fulks}

^{Image / Winston-Salem Police Department}

Theo Helm, director of Marketing and Communications for the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools, said the bus driver continued on the his route as usual because he did not see the child get hit, and because he was not told about the collision when it happened.

On Monday morning, the school bus had its stop arm extended and its lights were flashing. That has been the case in many of these accidents. Their frequency has been unbelievable. Their results have been devastating and deadly.

And by nature, they hit close to home, when a bus stops to pick up or drop off child, often within sight of his or her house.

Death can, literally, come to your door.

Two commenters on some of my recent blogs are teachers. They obviously took this issue very personally. One told the story of a close friend and colleague who witnessed his own daughter’s accident: “The young girl was hit as her father helplessly looked on.” It happened right in front of the high school where the girl was a senior and the father taught physics.

The fall of 2012 was a deadly season for school children. The stories of violence have been in the national news and here close by. I had hoped as the 2013 school year began that the season had ended.

But it has not.

Earlier Egerton blogs following bus accidents:

2012’s deadly season of school bus accidents

After a deadly season, a prayer for the new school year

Child struck by car in hit & run; bus continued route to school

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Pierce Egerton

Child struck by car in hit & run; bus continued route to school

Pierce Egerton — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:35:46 GMT

UPDATE:

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Late reports on Monday night from WFMY-TV News 2 and WXII-TV clarify some details of the incident in which a 7-year-old girl was struck by a car as she crossed the street to get on her school bus.

The child was hit by a car just before 8 a.m. as she was walking with her older sister across the street from the family’s house on Cherry Street near Germantown Road.

Reports said the car’s side mirror struck the child in the face.

The child boarded the bus, which finished its route to Gibson Elementary School 10 minutes away, reports said. The child’s father said that he spoke with a teacher who sent the girl to the school’s nurse after the child came to class.

The child, who is in the second grade, sustained minor injuries to her face and neck, according to police and school officials. The child’s father said the girl could not open her mouth, that her face was swollen and she was limping. Video from WXII Channel 12 showed cuts on the child’s face.

Police said their investigation into the circumstances of the incident is continuing.

(UPDATE Link: Arrest made)

PREVIOUSLY

Terrifying trend of school bus accidents continues

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - This morning (Monday) another child was struck down near a school bus. Police said her physical injuries are not severe.

The following information was collected from various late-breaking and sometimes conflicting reports. The investigation is still being pursued by the Winston-Salem Police Department in North Carolina.

The accident happened in the 4700 block of N. Cherry St., close to Gibson Elementary School, two reports said. ( Fox 8 ; News 2 )

Two reports said the 7-year-old girl was hit shortly before 8 a.m. One said that police responded to the school at 2020 Walker Road at about 10:30 a.m.

^{Image / Egerton Law}

The child suffered “minor injuries to her face and neck area,” police said. She had been trying to cross the road to get onto the bus. The bus had its stop arm extended and its lights flashing, police said.

The driver of the car drove away from the scene. The description of the vehicle:

Honda

Model: Unknown (Possibly a 4-door Accord)

Color: Dark Green

Year: 1999-2002

Police do not yet have a description of the driver.

Any witnesses or persons with information about the driver or the vehicle should call Crime Stoppers at 336-727-2800.

(Author’s Note: Monday afternoon, while in a more optimistic frame of mind, I was about to file the following post. Then I read about the accident that took place Monday morning.)

Danger works a “busman’s holiday” in school-related accidents

The break was too short.

I don’t mean the Christmas holiday season, although of course, that is never long enough.

The break I’m speaking of is the break in the cycle of accidents that struck at school buses in our region last fall. The first crash I wrote about in a two part series came on Oct. 26 – coincidentally on the last day of “National School Bus Safety Week.” On Dec. 19 – the last day before school let out for Christmas – an 11-year-old boy was hit and killed by an SUV as he crossed the road near Kernersville, North Carolina, to get on his bus.

I hoped as I watched the events unfold that the relentless string of accidents the piled up between those two days was a fluke – that we would not see its like again.

But the next crash came even sooner than I could have imagined.

Guilford County Schools were scheduled to open again in 2013 on Thursday, Jan. 3. On Wednesday, a bus from The Kids Clubhouse daycare was heading north on Highway 66 toward Kernersville. It was carrying 22 children.

A Jeep SUV heading in the opposite direction tried to turn left onto Brookford Road and ran into the side of the bus.

Minor details in news reports vary: all or most of the kids attend school in Guilford County; all or most are elementary-school age; no charges will be filed, or the investigation is ongoing.

The injuries to the kids on the bus were also said to be minor: “a few children scraped their knees or bumped their heads;” they had “knots on the head, bruising, and ankle and knee injuries;” they “did not need to go to the hospital.”

Neither driver appeared to have been hurt.

I hope the physical injuries are indeed all minor. These were very early reports.

But the impact was obviously powerful enough that everyone involved was vigorously shaken. All the children on the bus should be monitored closely in the coming days to be sure no injuries manifest themselves as time goes on. Both drivers should keep watch on their own physical condition as well.

Mentally – well, that is another matter. Friends and clients have many times related to me instances of accident trauma – or even instances of of near misses – that changed their mental state significantly, or at least altered their attitudes toward traveling on the highway.

Most of the accidents I have read of recently involved buses that had stopped, when children were going to or from the buses or getting on or off. In this case, one officer said the bus did not have any flashing lights activated at the time of the accident because the bus was not stopped. One report said, “The SUV … didn’t see the northbound bus.”

A “busman’s holiday” is a vacation that involves doing something similar to what one does at work. The term is often used to mean a vacation that really isn’t a vacation at all. On our streets and highways, danger never takes a holiday. As drivers, with regard to the protection of our children, none of us can ever afford to take a holiday either.

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Pierce Egerton

After a deadly season, a prayer for the new school year

Pierce Egerton — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 03:19:18 GMT

Second of a two-part series. To read part one, click here.

As the holiday season of 2012 approached, I had read again and again of accidents involving school buses and personnel in North Carolina and close by in Virginia. Some were fatal, but no children had yet been killed. I had not even read that any children were very severely hurt, at least not physically, although some had experienced almost miraculous escapes.

But I had an ominous feeling that the trend would get worse.

^{Image / Egerton Law}

^{As fleets of buses begin to roll in 2013 we can only hope for a safer year. During much of the fall season, news media reported on multiple bus-involved crashes in North Carolina and nearby in Virginia.}

On Thursday, Dec. 13, a bus from C.C. Wright Elementary School in Wilkesboro, N.C., was stopped in the eastbound lane – stoplights flashing, stop sign out, stop arm down. A 5-year-old girl stepped off and began to cross the road toward home. An oncoming car hit her, and she landed on the shoulder of the road with multiple fractures and possible internal injuries.

On Wednesday, Dec. 19, just before 7 a.m., a high school student was hit by a car as he crossed the Judd Parkway in Fuquay-Varina, N.C., to get on his bus. The bus’s amber lights were flashing to signal that it was stopping, police said. They charged the 31-year-old man driving the car with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. The 17-year-old student was taken to WakeMed Hospital, but his injuries were not life-threatening.

That was not the case in another accident that was unfolding at almost the same time, near Kernersville, N.C.

It was a 6:46 a.m. on the day before school was to let out for Christmas. The school bus had stopped. The driver had put its flashing lights on and extended the stop-arm of the bus. “The school bus was doing everything correct according to the early reports,” a state trooper said.

An 11-year-old boy was crossing Old Hollow Road. He’d missed the bus earlier, but its route was to turn around and pass that way again. Coming by a second time, it stopped to let the youngster on.

A Jeep SUV heading in the other direction hit the sixth-grader. His mother, who had been getting ready to drive him to school, heard the impact. A nurse, she ran to the road and tried to revive her child. She said in a news report that she tried to breathe into him twice but couldn’t get an airway.

He died later that morning, at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The rest of the children were taken to school on another bus. They were told of their classmate’s death later in the day and offered counseling.

The first day of winter was Dec. 21. The fall of 2012 was a terrible season of violence for America’s children. There was the horrific gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary school, as we all know. But close to home as well, here on our streets and highways, violence struck randomly at children going to and from school – a place where they should feel as safe as if they were at home.

And it’s hard to figure out any sensible “reason why” for these accidents. In the case of the crossing guard, the driver said she simply didn’t see the man, a big man, wearing an orange vest. In the case of the 11-year-old, the driver said he did not see the child. In another, the driver “may have been blinded by the sun.”

In some reports, there was no reason even given.

^{Image / Egerton Law}

^{In most crashes, it was reported that bus stop signs, flashing lights and stop arms had been deployed.}

Time and time again, drivers didn’t see the stop signs, the stop arms extended, the flashing lights warning “stop,” didn’t even see those big yellow buses stopping to wait for children.

“Stop.” That word keeps occurring.

Now we have begun the New Year. Buses loaded with children will back on our highways, roads, and streets. And I hope that all of us who have been granted the privilege of driving, can zero in on that one word as a watchword. “Stop.” Stop and think, when you see a bus as you drive.

There will be children out there, anywhere around the bus, in front of it, beside it, behind it, about to step out into your path. Kids are short – they’re hard to see. Stop and think about the danger zone you’re driving into every time you approach a bus.

And I pray that our school kids never see another season such as the one they’ve just endured.

Originally posted at The Legal Examiner by Pierce Egerton