QUEENS, NY- Abc7ny.com reports that an investigation is underway into the cause of a five-car accident that pushed a vehicle underneath a school bus in Queens, New York. The accident involved a chain reaction resulting in one car being wedged beneath the back end of the bus at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Woodhaven […]
QUEENS, NY- Abc7ny.com reports that an investigation is underway into the cause of a five-car accident that pushed a vehicle underneath a school bus in Queens, New York. The accident involved a chain reaction resulting in one car being wedged beneath the back end of the bus at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard.
There were no children on the bus at the time of the crash. The driver of the bus did not sustain any injuries. Five individuals who were in other vehicles suffered injuries in the collision. The conditions of those injured are not yet known.
Crashes involving school buses are rare. In most cases, when school buses are involved in vehicle collisions, the occupants of the bus are not the ones who suffer the worst injuries. School buses are designed to protect their occupants. The color of the bus is intended to alert drivers of the bus’s presence, and the inside is designed to protect children by functioning like an egg carton- with seats and other parts of the bus structure absorbing the impact. Agencies claim that these buses are the safest vehicles on the road, and statistically, children riding in buses are far less likely to be hurt or killed in a car accident than are children riding in passenger vehicles.
However, the protections are primarily designed to protect those traveling in the bus, and not the people around the large vehicles. When passenger vehicles collide with larger buses or trucks, the injuries to the other vehicle occupants can be devastating. Only 8% of people killed in these accidents are on the bus. The rest are other vehicle occupants, pedestrians, and cyclists.
