Seguin Couple Survives Campbellton Bus Accident
Bus Crash in Campbellton, Texas Kills Three by Texas Automobile Accident Lawyer Justin A. Hill
Among the survivors of the Campbellton, Texas bus accident were a Seguin couple. According to the Seguin Gazette Enterprise:
A Seguin couple was among dozens of people injured in an Atascosa County bus accident Tuesday morning. Roman and Diana Ann Medina were headed to South Texas and Mexico when the bus they were riding in careened off the highway and flipped, killing two passengers and injuring at least 30 others. Seguin resident Vivian Gonzales, Diane Medina’s daughter, said the couple was accompanying a relative from Atascosa County on a shopping trip to Falfurrias and Matamoros. Gonzales said her stepfather was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center and her mother was taken to Wilford Hall. She said her aunt, the relative traveling with the couple, did not sustain life-threatening injuries. “Roman is doing OK, we talked to him on the phone. He has a back fracture because of how they had to pull him out of the bus,” she said. “My mom has not been awake since the accident. Roman told us not to worry about him and to stay here with my mom.” Gonzales said her mother’s injuries include a back fracture and a small hemorrhage on the brain. “When we came to San Antonio, we went around to different hospitals because she was listed as a ‘Jane Doe,’” she said. “They think she has a good chance. We are just waiting for her to wake up.” The Americanos USA bus left San Antonio with 42 people on board and was headed to the Mexican border city of Matamoros, with a planned stop in Falfurria, Texas. The accident occurred about 45 miles from San Antonio, where the bus driver heard a loud noise before the bus veered from the right lane of Interstate 37. The bus spun toward the grassy median and landed on its right side, said Chuck Garris, the emergency management coordinator for Atascosa County. There were 25 passengers treated at South Texas Regional Medical Center. Those 25 passengers were in stable condition or preparing to be discharged, hospital spokeswoman Danielle Flores said. Two others who were initially taken to the hospital for treatment were later airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio, she said. Four passengers were transported to Brooke Army Medical Center, where they were in stable condition. Another five were airlifted to University Hospital in San Antonio, where one person was in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Julie Wiley said. The condition of the other four was undetermined. A male and female passenger were killed in the crash, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said. He declined to give their names or ages. Garris said when he arrived at the scene, stunned passengers with cuts on their heads and bruises were waiting for medical treatment. Most of the passengers were adults, although there were a few small children, he said. “People were all sitting on the grass stunned, wondering what happened,” Garris said. “It was a mess.” The bus windows were shattered, and luggage, pillows and purses littered the median. It had rained overnight and early Tuesday, but investigators were unsure if weather factored into the accident, Texas DPS Trooper Jason Reyes said. Reyes said there was no initial indication the driver, 47-year-old Irma Morado, was impaired. Garris said Morado helped remove passengers from the bus. She has not been charged. Investigators suspect equipment failure may have caused the crash, Vinger said. Authorities on the scene said the tires on bus appeared intact. The National Transportation Safety Board is not planning to investigate because its initial assessment turned up no new potential safety issues involving the company or crash, agency spokesman Keith Holloway said. The NTSB for the same reason is not investigating a March 5 bus crash near Phoenix that left six passengers dead, Holloway said. The NTSB has long advocated that motor coaches include seat belts and other occupational safety devices, but the recommendations have yet to be turned into law, in part because of strong lobbying by bus companies. Americanos USA, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Greyhound Lines Inc., has a good federal safety record. Before Tuesday, the company’s vehicles were involved in 10 accidents in three states in the last 30 months, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records. Tuesday’s crash was the company’s fifth involving injuries and second involving fatalities. One person died in a January 2009 crash in San Diego involving one of its vehicles. The company’s driver was not cited. With 137 motor coaches in service, Americanos has been involved in one accident for every 13 buses. By comparison, Greyhound has been involved in one accident for every eight buses. In the last two years, inspectors placed Americanos USA vehicles out of service following 11.2 percent of their inspections, about half the national average of 22.3 percent. Inspectors placed the company’s drivers out of service after only 1.8 percent of inspections, a far lower rate than the national average of 6.6 percent. A spokeswoman with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the agency had just heard about the crash and was beginning to gather information. Bonnie Bastian, a spokeswoman for Greyhound’s parent company, FirstGroup America, said the company is assisting with the investigation. She said two buses were dispatched to the crash site to pick up uninjured passengers — one for those who wanted to continue on to Mexico and the other for those who wanted to return to San Antonio.
If someone you know was injured or killed as the result of a motor coach, RV, or bus accident, encourage them to immediately contact a competent attorney for advice. It is extremely important to do this quickly to ensure that evidence is preserved, statements are taken, and the rights of all potential plaintiffs are protected.
