The federal government had some good news for product liability and safety advocates like attorney Nate Bjerke and Champion Law last week when it told Congress that it will require commercial motor coaches to have safety belts for their passengers. This is a move that product liability lawyers and the National Transportation Safety Board have been advocating for years.Unfortunately, it took several deaths and needless injuries to bring about this change. After analyzing the events surrounding a 2008 Utah bus rollover in which nine people died and 43 were injured (pictured above), the NTSB concluded that federal regulations just don't protect bus passengers like they should. The American Association for Justice then got involved and called for new rules.
Safety advocates, including the NTSB and the AAJ, reproached the NHTSA for acting too slowly in making much needed safety improvements on commercial buses. “The finding from the NTSB shows how the public is endangered when federal agencies drag their feet,” said Gerie Voss, the AAJ Director of Regulatory Affairs. “The Obama Administration must make updating transportation safety standards a priority.”
According to Ron Medford, the NHTSA’s acting administrator, commercial bus safety has become one of the agency’s top priorities. “I think it is true that the NHTSA was slow to act,” he told the Detroit News. Although nearly as many Americans travel on commercial buses as they do airplanes, buses are the least regulated motor vehicles under the NHTSA’s jurisdiction.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a commercial bus crash or just has questions about product liability or product safety. call attorney Nate Bjerke of Champion Law at 651.766.5886, or visit the firm's web-site.
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