Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)
According to the police report concerning the bus-pedestrian collision, Diane Cash was approximately two-thirds of the way across the intersection at the time of impact. The impact knocked her to the ground, and her head struck the pavement.
Prior to the collision, defendant Terry James, driving the University bus on its regular route, was traveling westbound on University Avenue. According to defendant James, he came to a stop at the limit line for the stop sign at Campus Commons Road, and then began executing his left turn onto University Avenue. While executing his turn, James saw a shadow in front of his bus which he later determined to be Diane Cash. Defendant James testified that he struck Ms. Cash with the right front portion of the bus.
The investigating officer determined that the primary collision factor was a violation on the part of defendant James of California Vehicle Code Section 21950(a) (failure to yield to a pedestrian within a marked crosswalk). Defendant University investigated the circumstances of the collision, and it concluded that driver James was at fault, and that the accident chargeable to driver James’s record.
At the scene, driver James did not mention any equipment failures to the investigating police officer. At deposition, however, defendant James testified that the windshield wipers on the University bus were not functioning at the time of the collision. Further discovery confirmed that the windshield wipers, and possibly the defroster system on the bus, had not been functioning for a period of at least several days before the collision.
Several University bus drivers testified in the action that, prior to February 6, 2005, they had reported the malfunction to the University, and had also requested that the equipment be repaired by the University’s bus maintenance department. Despite these multiple requests, the wipers and defroster were not repaired by defendant University. As a result, defendant James’s vision through the wet windshield of the bus was likely impaired on February 6, 2005, resulting in the bus pedestrian collision in which Diane Cash was injured. The failure of defendant University to properly maintain the windshield wipers and defroster system on their bus, is a violation of California Vehicle Code Sections 24002, 26706, 26707 and 26712. (See Part 3 of 7.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.