Case Study: Bus Accident Response
It was an early evening on a fall day in a small city in the Northeastern region of the United States. Steve Wilson, a bus driver with less than 6 months on-the-job experience is driving his regular fixed route in a 32-foot coach for Rover Transit. Steve approaches the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Conifer Street with the intent of making a left-hand turn. As he enters the intersection, Steve assumes that the oncoming traffic will stop for the yellow signal light. While Steve is in the intersection, the traffic signal light turns from green to yellow so he accelerates the bus into the left turn as the light turns from yellow to red. At the same time, an oncoming pickup truck, hoping to make it through the intersection before the light turns red, increased its speed and crashes into the middle of Steve’s bus. Several bus passengers are thrown from their seats by the T-bone impact and two passengers receive deep cuts that are bleeding heavily. The pickup truck driver has a major bruise on his forehead from hitting the truck windshield and, although he generally appears to be okay, he may possibly have received a concussion.
Steve is shaken up but not injured, so he grabs the first aid kit and rushes back to check on the passengers. In his previous job he had received some first aid training, so he knows he can help the injured using techniques he learned like placing pressure on passenger wounds to curb blood loss. After spending a few minutes providing aid, he is satisfied with the condition of the bleeding passengers and returns to the driver’s seat to radio dispatch about the accident. A crowd has started to gather near the accident scene.
The dispatcher on duty at this time of day works primarily as a bus operator for Rover Transit and fills in as a dispatcher when needed. As she listens to Steve explain the situation, she asks for his location and lets him know that police and emergency medical services will be responding to the accident scene. As an experienced driver, and since she knows that Steve has not been on the job long, she tries to calm him down by asking how he is doing and letting him know that everything will work out okay. She asks Steve if there is any immediate danger for the passengers. He tells her he doesn’t think so, all the other vehicles are moving very slowly around the accident scene. Steve asks her what he should do about the uninjured passengers on the bus. The dispatcher tells Steve that he should get those passengers off the bus and take them to a safe place off of the street and be sure to return to the bus to stay with those that are injured until help arrives. The dispatcher then notifies police and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). As she tries to reach someone in operations management and receives no response, she recalls that at this time of day upper management may have left work already and supervisors are changing shifts.
Fifteen minutes later, dispatch reaches Betty Furnell, Operations Supervisor, and she heads to the accident scene.
Meanwhile, law enforcement and Emergency Medical Technicians have responded to the scene, as well as a reporter from a local radio station. George Haywood, a passenger on the bus, talks to the reporter about his experience.
“It all happened so fast. I saw the pickup coming and braced myself, and the next thing I knew people were flying around the bus and screaming. I could see a couple people looked like they had been hurt real bad. The bus driver ran back to help the passengers, then after awhile he got on the radio to talk to someone. When he got off the radio he asked us if there was anyone who wasn’t hurt and told us that he would take us off the bus and over to the curb. He seemed kind of shaken up by everything. I told him I was ok and could help make sure traffic would stop until we got everyone to the sidewalk. I had to help one lady walk over to the sidewalk; she didn’t want to stay on the bus. The driver said that police would be there soon and to just sit down and not go anywhere. One man asked him how he was going to get home and the driver asked if he had any family that could pick him up. After the police arrived, I saw the bus driver telling the officer that it was the pickup driver’s fault that all this happened. It looked like the policeman was just trying to check on the passengers, but the driver was waving his arms and trying to tell him what happened. I could see the officer trying to calm the driver down. He finally asked the driver to move out of the way so he could continue writing up the accident details. That’s when I saw the driver seek you out and blame the pickup driver for the accident.”
Betty, the Operations Supervisor, has now made it to the scene, considerably later than she would have preferred to arrive. Injured passengers have been taken to a hospital and law enforcement is continuing to document accident events. Betty identifies herself to the police officer as a Rover Transit Supervisor and seeks out Steve, who has returned to the bus. She finds him sitting in the driver’s seat looking dazed. Betty understands that Steve must undergo post accident testing since there were injuries requiring medical attention away from the scene and disabling damage to both vehicles involved. She doesn’t smell alcohol on Steve’s breath and she knows he is a teetotaler anyhow. Betty calls dispatch to ask for a supervisor to escort Steve to the drug and alcohol collection site while she investigates the accident. She is not sure about the post-accident testing protocols, but figures that given Steve’s condition and abstinence from alcohol that he will only need a drug test. At this time she also asks dispatch to send a backup bus to transport the few passengers that remain waiting on the sidewalk. Betty attempts to capture witness contact information from the passengers that are still waiting since Steve failed to do so; however, the majority of witnesses have already departed the scene without leaving contact information.
Another Rover Transit bus has arrived to pick up the remaining displaced passengers and continue Steve’s route. Steve was transported to the collection site for drug testing. Betty starts to perform her accident investigation and discovers the transit vehicle she has driven to the scene does not contain an accident kit. Without a camera or a tape measure, she is hampered to document the accident scene. Law enforcement has completed their investigation and both Betty and the police officer stay on the scene until a tow truck removes the pickup truck from the scene and Rover Transit maintenance department performs a road call and tows the bus back to the maintenance facility.
The transit system suspended Steve, the bus driver, and disciplined the transit dispatcher. The fallout from this accident included Rover Transit receiving negative findings on the management of its drug and alcohol program, significant liability exposure for the transit system, and negative media based on post accident press coverage. Accident response requires documented policies and procedures along with training, particularly as these protocols direct the activities of bus drivers, dispatchers, and supervisors.