3 school buses crash on Bellaire Boulevard – 10 students injured
February 28, 2011: three school buses crashed on Monday afternoon sending ten students to the hospital to be checked out and treated for injuries. The collision happened on Bellaire Boulevard at Synott around 4:30PM in southwest Houston. This was a chain reaction style collision: Alief Independent School District said one of its buses stopped suddenly, the second bus ran into it and the second bus was then rear-ended by the third bus. The students taken to the hospital attend Killough Middle School; fortunately none of the injuries to the students were described as serious.
Every automobile accident injury claim (or lawsuit) has two components: liability (who was at fault for the accident) and damages (what losses does the injured person have, e.g. medical bills, lost wages, physical pain). People sometimes think that there is a law in the State of Texas that says that in a rear-end collision, the car behind is always at fault. That’s not true, which makes sense because there are occasions when the car in front is at fault, e.g. in the case of a sudden lane change where the front car unexpectedly switches lanes and slams on its brakes, cutting off the rear car and causing an accident.
Generally speaking though, rear-end collisions are more straightforward when it comes to liability, and insurance companies are more likely to fault their insured in a rear-end collision. The Texas Transportation Code includes a statute saying all drivers have a duty to maintain an assured following distance from the vehicle in front, such that the rear vehicle can safely stop in an emergency. If a police officer investigates a rear-end collision and issues a citation, the driver of the rear car is usually cited for “failure to control speed.” This does not necessarily mean the driver of the rear car is driving over the speed limit, what it means is the collision occurred because the driver of the rear car was not able to reduce their speed in time to safely come to a stop.
If you have been injured in a rear end car accident, call the experienced Houston personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation and advice on your insurance claim. Even if your accident does involve clear liability, that doesn’t guarantee the other driver’s insurance company is going to offer you a fair settlement!
10 students were injured in a 3 school bus crash on Bellaire in Houston