A car’s driver who reportedly ran a red light at the intersection of Virginia Beach Blvd. and Lynnhaven Road in Virginia Beach, VA, struck an HRT bus, badly injuring eight aboard. The at-fault driver also sustained injuries in the April 30, 2014, collision and was charged by police with failing to obey a stop signal.
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None of the injuries to the bus driver, seven HRT passengers or the person behind the wheel of the car were considered life-threatening. All, however, were transported to nearby hospitals for medical treatment.
Details on the accident remain scarce. It is unclear whether the person who caused the wreck was speeding, distracted by using a cell phone or GPS device, or experienced some health emergency or mechanical failure with their vehicle.
What is clear, however, is that running a red light can have serious, sometimes deadly, consequences. All drivers must watch for and heed stop signals. The only thing preventing this Virginia Beach accident from being more serious was probably the size of the bus.
While transit buses lack the standard safety equipment of cars, pickups and SUVs like seat belts and airbags, they can generally absorb all but the hardest impacts without putting occupants’ lives at risk. Even with that stated, one need only remember incidents such as the recent fatal head-on collision between a Fed Ex semi and a school bus in California to realize that no vehicle is big enough to be safe in all situations.
EJL