Kentucky Bus Crash Victim Sues School Bus Manufacturer
Posted by
Craig CherryAugust 02, 2007 5:54 AMThe family of 12-year old Cody Shively sued the manufacturers of a school bus he was riding in back in January of this year when it was involved in a crash. Cody suffered severe brain and eye injuries as a result of not being properly restrained during the crash event.
A video camera inside the bus captured Cody and other school children being tossed around the bus during the crash, amidst flying metal beams, shards of glass, and other debris.
The family has sued Navistar International Corporation, Navistar International Transportation Corporation, International Truck and Engine Corporation and IC Corporation alleging the school bus was unsafe because it did not provide seat betls for passengers and lacked sufficient structural integrity.
School bus manufacturers have historically relied upon a theory known as "passive restraint" and "compartmentalization" as attempts to protect school bus passengers. Reliance upon compartmentalization alone is absurd, particularly in a tipover or rollover crash. If a child is not restrained to his seat during a tipover/rollover crash event, the force of gravity is necessarily going to throw the bus passengers out of their seats, thereby creating the potential for a partial or full ejection from the bus. No parent would put a child in a car without a seat belt and no parent should not be forced to put their child in a school bus without seat belts.
For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Airlines, Cruises, Buses, and Other Mass Transit Accidents.