Washington Injury Law Blog

A charter bus taking the Garfield High Women’s Softball team home from a game in Kirkland, Washington against Lake Washington High School crashed into a pedestrian bridge shearing off the roof of the bus last night. Five students were taken by ambulance to the Harborview hospital with complaints of neck and back pain, luckily none of the injuries appeared serious. 

 The bus accident happened in Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum.  The bus driver appears to have been distracted and failed to see the bridge clearance was only 9 feet, when the bus was 11 feet 8 inches tall. 

As a Kirkland, Washington truck accident attorney I have seen cases where a commercial vehicle or truck accident is caused by a distracted driver. Driver distraction is a common cause of commercial vehicle or truck accidents in Washington. It is very dangerous for other drivers and passengers when the driver of a huge vehicle – that can crush another car if an accident happens – does not maintain focus on the task of driving. This is especially dangerous when it’s a bus or other common carrier of large numbers of passengers. People can be seriously hurt in the blink of an eye when a big bus or semi-truck is in a bad accident.

Luckily, in this case it appears the injuries where minor. That is not always the case, and we should count our blessings that a much bigger tragedy was avoided. 

Source: Seattle PI