Why Do Bus Accidents Happen?

286 Words2 Pages
Last Tuesday, as millions remembered the tragedy of the September 11th attacks, a Polish bus crashed in eastern France. The crash claimed the lives of three innocent people and injured many others. The cause of the crash is currently unknown, but alcohol tests on the driver have come back negative. There were no other vehicles involved. This kind of accident is by no means uncommon – bus accidents occur frequently all around the world. A Philadelphia school bus crash that occurred on September 20th sent twenty students to the hospital. A woman in Vancouver was killed the same day, after being struck by a city bus. On September 19th, fourteen people were killed and forty-five injured in Uganda. In Nepal, a bus accident killed twenty-seven people and injured eleven others. We may not always hear about them in the news, but bus accidents occur vitrually every day. Any type of vehicle will never be entirely safe – their use will always carry risks. This includes buses. A wide variety of reasons can account for bus accidents – inclement weather, bad roads, an irresponsible or impaired driver, the list goes on. We cannot prevent the bus accidents entirely, but we can take measures to reduce the chances of them occuring. Damaged or dangerous roads should be closed off and repaired. Bus driver applicants should be throughly checked and trained before they are hired and allowed to work. In the case of severe weather, buses should be delayed until the conditions clear up. New bus designs with improved safety features would also be helpful. We may not be able to prevent the inevitable occasional accident, but we can work to make sure they become less and less
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