Bus accident and fatalities

The driver who caused the deaths of 16 people on a rural Canadian road in Saskatchewan after crashing his truck into a bus transporting a junior hockey team was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison, Canadian media reported.

March 22, 2019 - Truck driver in fatal Canada hockey bus crash jailed for eight years

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, 30, pleaded guilty in January to 29 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death or bodily harm, saying he did not want to make things worse by proceeding with a trial.

The prosecution had asked for 10 years. The defense had made no recommendation but cited cases whose sentences ranged from 18 months to four years, according to CBC News.

The Humboldt Broncos hockey team was on its way to a playoff game before the crash last April, which killed players, staff, a radio announcer and the bus driver. Sidhu, driving a load of peat moss, was not injured.

On Friday, at the hearing in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Judge Inez Cardinal read out nearly 100 victim impact statements, CBC News reporter Jason Warick posted on Twitter.

Along with the sentence, Sidhu’s driver’s license was also suspended.

In January, the judge heard numerous statements over four days from family members of deceased and injured players in a gymnasium chosen for the hearing to accommodate families, friends, lawyers and media. Some said they forgave Sidhu.

On Friday, Cardinal said there were no road or weather conditions that contributed to the crash, and drinking, speeding or cell phone use were also not factors.

There were no tire marks due to braking left by the semi truck leading to the intersection, where the truck, but not the bus, was legally required to stop, according to an agreed statement of facts.

Cardinal said Sidhu had been driving up to 96 km (60 miles) per hour and, preoccupied with a flapping tarp behind him, had passed several signs indicating an intersection was coming up, including a flashing stop sign, according to Warick.

However, Cardinal noted that Sidhu had expressed “profound remorse,” Warick tweeted.

The victims were mourned last year in Humboldt, a farming town of 6,000, and across Canada, where junior hockey teams are a fixture of many rural communities.
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Thanks for bringing this up, and of course it was a big story here - the tragedy, the year after and the sentencing.

Of the families:

Some said they forgave Sidhu.
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I thought Mr. Sidhu showed a lot of remorse throughout, and this brings up the tragedy that all must endure; the heavy loss and serious injuries and the driver who must live with the memories. No one close to this could possibly get over it, the scars are for life.

This also promoted some discussions. Obviously it was a horrible accident - a tragedy beyond normal with deep pains for the families and community, however this was still an accident and it was not deliberate and premeditated. This man, like him or not, did not get out of bed with the intent to have an accident and cause such loss of life; it was an accident born from his undue attention, which is most often the case when not mechanical. This one was a perfect storm.

Now, if a person causes an accident - like they messed up and it was not due to being drunk let’s say, should people go to jail like this guy? What he did was violate regulatory law, not criminal law, yet that was what was applied because of the scope. So, understandably some people have every reason to want to hate him for what he did, for the accident indeed took loved ones - and yet this happens all the time, each day in every city people are involved in accidents. What of those who caused them? Do all go to jail? In the end it was an accident and of course most all are preventable.

What do we do with the pilot who crashed the plane (he makes an error, a misjudgement, he lacked attention) and causes many to die? Is he thrown in jail if he survives? What about a ship sinking or a train accident - if not willful, should they suffer more than they are suffering? Driving is darn dangerous and all must anticipate - be aware of what is happening around them at ever second, and this was a failure of awareness. So, was the sentencing at all political?

This brings up other points. And this is a big problem with trucking. It was noted that the Saskatchewan government bears no responsibility in terms of issuing him with a Class #1 drivers license. One comment has it that in BC it requires 2-3 years for a young driver to go through a graduated licensing process to get their class 5 drivers license (to drive a car). A Class 1 license, however, only requires a quick driving course and an exam with little or no verification of driver competency and you are good to go behind the wheel of a truck.

In the mountains of BC a new driver can get their Class 1 (air brakes and all) and get behind the wheel of a massive truck carrying 50 tones or more and proceed to drive down twisting mountain roads not even knowing how to put on tire chains. Gone are the times when drivers were actually professionals and took it seriously, and there are still some (you can tell right away), yet I meet these new inexperienced drives often and their driving is something one needs to really pay attention to because their rigs will take you out if not careful. If counting the accidents over the years it leaves me somewhat speechless, and yet nothing is done about it, in fact it gets more lax.

If something good could have come out of this horrible situation, it should have included the very bodies that hand out Class 1 licenses to any who apply; no skill necessary.

In this story we know that Mr. Sidhu was distracted, he said, by a loose tarp - he was focused on it in the mirror and he made many many errors, including the big one of failing to stop at the sign. The bus driver is gone and no one can know what he saw - how distracted he was also to have anticipated and braked. It happens.

Personally, it did not feel right sentencing him like this and yet people demanded someone be held accountable and he was the direct cause in this crappy situation. :-(
 
Dubai bus crash: 17 dead after driver hits overhead sign

At least 17 people of different nationalities have been killed and several more injured after a bus hit an overhead road sign in Dubai.

The Oman-registered vehicle was carrying 31 passengers when the crash occurred on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, police said.

Indian officials said that eight Indian citizens were among the dead.

The driver, who is in his 50s, is receiving treatment for minor injuries and an investigation is underway.

On their official Twitter account, Dubai police offered their "sincere condolences and sympathies" to the families of the victims.

"Sometimes a slight error or negligence during the driving of the vehicle leads to dire consequences," police chief Maj Gen Abdullah Khalifa Al-Marri said.


https://twitter.com/x/status/1136668023866175488

No official cause or details have yet emerged about the crash. Local media said the vehicle swerved to avoid a height restriction sign, which then sliced through the roof.

The Indian embassy in Dubai released the names of all eight Indians killed in the crash, and said it was in touch with some of the families. Several other Indians were treated for injuries.

There are as yet no further details about the remaining victims.

Omani bus company Mwasalat tweeted its "deepest condolences" and announced its services between Muscat and Dubai were suspended until further notice.

12 Indians killed in Dubai bus accident


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The low-clearance signboard that hangs over a car-only off-ramp of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, a major highway in Dubai, smashed through the left side of the bus and killed almost everyone seated on that side. (Photo Credit: Dubai Police)

At least 12 Indians were among 17 people killed when a bus packed with Eid vacationers entered a restricted lane and rammed into a low-clearance height barrier in the United Arab Emirates city, local police and the Indian mission said on Friday.

Nine persons were also seriously injured when the driver of the bus, coming from Oman’s capital Muscat to Dubai, entered a road not designated for buses around 6pm on Thursday while heading for the Al Rashidiya metro station in Dubai .

The low-clearance signboard that hangs over a car-only off-ramp of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, a major highway in Dubai, smashed through the left side of the bus and killed almost everyone seated on that side.

Khaleej Times quoted the driver, identified as an Omani national who sustained critical injuries, as saying to the police that he couldn’t see the warning signage as he had put a curtain on his windshield to protect his eyes from the sun.

Dubai Police said that some of the bodies remained unidentified and that the number of Indian casualties could rise.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar, currently in Bhutan, expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased. “Deeply grieved by the unfortunate bus accident in Dubai that has claimed 12 Indian lives. My sincere condolences to the families,” he tweeted.

Eight of the 12 killed hailed from Kerala, Union minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan added.

Vipul, the Indian Consul General in Dubai, said embassy officials were at the Rashidiya police station and mortuary to extend all assistance to the families of the victims.
“Our effort now is to get formalities completed soon so that mortal remains can be repatriated soon,” he added.
“Sometimes a minor error or negligence during driving leads to serious consequences,” Dubai Police said on Twitter, without elaborating on the cause of the crash.

The bus, belonging to the Omani bus transport company, Mwasalat, was carrying 31 passengers, Gulf News reported. Visuals from the accident site showed the left side of the bus mangled by the signboard.

Muraleedharan said efforts were on to bring back the bodies of the 12 Indians. He said the Consul General in Dubai was coordinating all activities and bodies will be sent to the respective destinations at the earliest.

Vipul said that officers from the consulate were taking all necessary steps to ensure repatriation formalities of all victims are completed as soon as possible. “Once death certificates are issued, the bodies will be sent for embalming and other procedures,” he was quoted as saying by Khaleej Times.

“We were told about the mishap last night. I have lost my uncle C Ummer (65) and his son, my cousin brother, C Nabeel. Both were working in Dubai and they went to Muscat to spend Eid holidays,” a relative M Mohsin, a resident of Thalassery in north Kerala, said.
Among the dead is Deepak Kumar, a chartered accountant from Kerala capital of Thiruvananthapuram. His wife and son were also injured in the mishap and are undergoing treatment in Dubai. Their relatives were told by authorities that their condition was stable.

Dubai Police expressed its condolences to the families. “The General Directorate of Dubai Police extends its sincere condolences to the families of the deceased who were involved in a bus crash at Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, which killed 17 passengers,” it said.

Mwasalat, the bus company, issued a statement on Twitter announcing the suspension of services between Muscat and Dubai and vice versa, until further notice. “Mwasalat family expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured,” it tweeted.

The service separately identified the dead as 11 Indians, two Pakistanis, one Irish citizen and an Omani, with two others not immediately identified. The discrepancy between the company’s figures and the Indian consular officials could not be immediately explained.
Pakistani consular officials in Dubai declined to immediately comment. The Irish Embassy in Abu Dhabi said it was aware of reports of the death and providing consular assistance.

Among the 31 people on board were also citizens of Bangladesh, Germany and the Philippines, the bus company’s statement said. It added that seven passengers remained hospitalised, with one in critical condition. Eight others had been discharged.

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Dubai Police said the dead included different nationalities, without elaborating.
First Published: Jun 07, 2019 08:33 IST
 
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Bus falls into gorge in Indian Kashmir, killing at least 33
A bus packed with passengers fell into a gorge in Indian Kashmir on Monday killing at least 33 people, a state official said, the second such accident in a week.

At least 22 people were injured when the bus skidded off a winding road in Kisthwar district, government official Angrez Singh Rana said.

Media reports said the bus was overloaded. Accidents are common in the mountainous region where many roads are in disrepair.

Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Mailk said many of the drivers were untrained and he had ordered state officials to cancel their licenses.

“Most of the accidents take place due to careless and untrained drivers who drive without any regard for rules and regulations,” a state government spokesman quoted the governor as saying.

Last week, 11 students were killed when their bus fell into a deep gorge at a picnic spot in Shopian district.
 
At Least 3 People Dead, Dozens Injured in Road Accident Near Russia's City of Novorossiysk
08.08.2019
Three people died, 44 hospitalized in a road crash involving a bus and a car near Russia's southern city of Novorossiysk, Sergei Pulikovskiy, the Krasnodar Territory emergencies minister, said on Thursday.

A source said late on Wednesday that a passenger bus and a car collided and fell off a cliff near the settlement of Verkhnebakanskiy close to Novorossiysk, located in Russia's Krasnodar Territory.

"Around 32 people have been injured. They have all received medical assistance and were taken to hospitals. Three people died. All of them have been taken [from the site of the crash]," Pulikovskiy said live on Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"All those killed are passengers of a car — a woman and two minor children. The driver of the Volkswagen Touareg car, born in 1974, is alive with moderate injuries. He has been hospitalized," the regional branch of the Interior Ministry said.

Previously, a spokesperson of the regional emergencies services said that four people had died and thirty others been taken to hospitals.

Krasnodar Territory Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that an emergency centre had been set up in the region to deal with the accident.
The regional branch of the Russian Investigative Committee said that investigators had been dispatched to the site of the crash to find out reasons behind the accident.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1159232454105808896

Later, the Krasnodar Territory Health Ministry said that forty-four people, including 12 children, had been hospitalized after a road accident.

"Forty-four people have been hospitalized after a road accident involving a bus in Novorossiysk. Thirteen people have had emergency surgeries," the Health Ministry said.

The ministry added that medics have consulted regional medical aviation units and decided to transfer three people to a hospital in the regional administrative centre of Krasnodar by ambulance cars. They also plan to transport one child to a Krasnodar hospital. The medics are currently waiting for his condition to stabilize.

Meanwhile, the city administration said that five out of 44 people, who had been hospitalized, were in serious condition.

The Russian Interior Ministry's General Administration for Road Traffic Safety said that according to the preliminary information, at 10:20 p.m. (19:20 GMT) on Wednesday, a Volkswagen Touareg and a Hyundai bus collided on a highway connecting Novorossiysk and the Kerch Strait. The authority added that after the two vehicles collided, they fell off a 30-meter (98-feet) cliff.

Meanwhile, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said there were a total of 45 people inside the two vehicles as they collided.

"There were 41 people inside the bus (39 passengers, a driver and a guide) and four people were inside the car. There were a total of 45 people," the ministry's press service said.
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Three victims of bus accident near Novorossiysk to be transferred to Krasnodar
8 AUG, 2019
The number of the victims hospitalized as a result of the accident went up to 44

August 8. / TASS /. Three people injured in the bus accident near Novorossiysk will be transferred to the regional hospital in Krasnodar, the press service of the Krasnodar Region Health Ministry said on Thursday.

"After consulting with the regional medical aviation team, we made the decision to transfer three people to the Krasnodar Region hospital. They will be taken by critical care transport to Krasnodar. After another child is stabilized, he will be taken by the medical helicopter to the regional Children's hospital during the day," the ministry said.

They also added that the number of the victims hospitalized as a result of the accident went up to 44, 13 of which were urgently operated. At the same time, according to the Emergencies Ministry, 42 people were injured because of the accident - 39 bus passengers, a guide, and the drivers of the bus and the passenger car, while the three passengers of the car died as a result. . Later it was reported that 41 people were hospitalized after the accident, including 12 children.

On Wednesday, around 22:20 Moscow time, on the 16th kilometer of the Novorossiysk-Kerch Strait highway, a head-on collision occurred between a Volkswagen Touareg and a Hyundai bus, which caused both vehicles to tumble down the cliff, approximately 30 meters. A criminal investigation has been launched on the grounds of the violation of Article 264, paragraph 5 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (Violation of the rules of the road and the operation of vehicles, resulting in the negligent death of one or more people).
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Bus with Chinese tourists crashes in Utah; 4 dead
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This photo provided by the Utah Highway Patrol shows a tour bus carrying Chinese-speaking tourists after it crashed near Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah, killing at least four people and critically injuring multiple others, Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. (AP)

PANGUITCH, Utah: A tour bus crashed on a highway running through the red-rock landscape of southern Utah, killing four people from China and injuring dozens more.

On Friday, the bus from Southern California rolled onto a guard rail, crushing its roof and ramming the rail’s vertical posts into the cab, Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Nick Street said.

Five passengers remained in critical condition Friday night, and the death toll could rise, he said.

All 31 people on board were hurt. Twelve to 15 were considered in critical condition shortly after the crash, but several of them have since improved, Street said. Not everyone was wearing a seatbelt, as is common in tour buses, he said.

The crash happened near a highway rest stop a few miles from southern Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park, an otherworldly landscape of narrow red-rock spires.

Authorities believe the driver swerved on the way to the park on Friday morning, but when he yanked the steering wheel to put the bus back onto the road the momentum sent the bus into a rollover crash.

The driver, an American citizen, survived and was talking with investigators, Street said. The driver didn’t appear intoxicated, but authorities were still investigating his condition as well as any possible mechanical problems, he said.
There was some wind but not strong enough to cause problems, Street said.The crash left the top of the white bus smashed inward and one side peeling away as the vehicle came to rest mostly off the side of the road against a sign for restrooms.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate. The company listed on the bus was America Shengjia Inc. Utah business records indicate it is based in Monterey Park, California. A woman answering the phone there did not have immediate comment.

Injured victims were sent to three hospitals. Intermountain Garfield Memorial Hospital said it received 17 patients, including three in critical condition and 11 in serious condition.

Patients also were taken to Cedar City and St. George hospitals. Millions of people visit Utah’s five national parks every year. Last year, about 87,000 people from China visited the state, making them the fastest-growing group of Utah tourists, according to state data.

More than half of visitors from China travel on tour buses, said Vicki Varela, managing director of Utah Office of Tourism.

The Chinese Embassy tweeted that it was saddened to learn of the crash and that it was sending staff to help the victims.

Bryce Canyon, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, draws more than 2 million visitors a year.

“You have a group from China who have worked hard to come to the states, got the visa and everything they needed, excited about it, and for a tragedy like this to happen it just makes it all the more tragic,” Street said.
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Death toll up as bus crashes in northwest Pakistan
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Road accidents are common in Pakistan where motorists largely disregard traffic rules and safety standards on battered roads. (AFP)

September 22, 2019 - ISLAMABAD: A bus crash in northern Pakistan killed 26 people Sunday after its brakes failed on a winding mountain road, police said.

Another 20 passengers were injured when the bus smashed head-on into a dirt embankment, said Abdul Wakil, a local police officer.

Such road accidents are common in Pakistan, where motorists largely disregard traffic rules and safety standards on worn-out roads.

Last month, a speeding bus fell off a mountainous road into a river in the northwest, killing 24 passengers.

Rescue efforts were hampered Sunday by the remote terrain near the town of Chilas on the route between the cities of Rawalpindi and Skardu. That's in the Gilgit-Baltistan area, part of the larger Kashmir region.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, and has been the sight of recent tensions. An army statement said ten soldiers were among those killed in the crash.

Wakil said two of the injured had died after being taken to the hospital, and that all the dead and injured had been evacuated to hospitals from the crash site.
 
One person has been killed and 17 injured in a traffic accident with a bus in the southern France.

sputniknews.com

One Person Dead, 17 Injured in Bus Crash in South of France - Reports

A bus belonging to the company Flixbus with 30 people on board, including the driver, going in the direction Narbonne-Toulouse overturned shortly before 13:00 (11:00 a.m. GMT) for a reason that remains to be determined, media reported...
sputniknews.com sputniknews.com
06.10.2019

tass.com

20 injured in tourist bus accident near Nizhny Novgorod

According to the Emergency Ministry, the driver of the Mercedes tourist bus lost control of the vehicle, and the bus overturned
tass.com tass.com
6 OCT, 2019
 
france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr

Un bus ravagé par les flammes à Nîmes, les dix collégiens à bord indemnes

L'incendie s'est déclaré pour une raison inconnue dans un bus de Nîmes, vers 13h30, ce vendredi. L'engin transportait dix collégiens. Tous ont pu s'échapper à temps avec le chauffeur, il n'y a aucun blessé mais l'autocar...
france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr
Screenshot 2023-01-14 at 19-03-23 Un bus ravagé par les flammes à Nîmes les dix collégiens à b...png
https://twitter.com/x/status/1614231857607892993
INFO - #FaitsDivers : A school bus accident occurred this Friday at #Nîmes . All the children on the bus were evacuated and brought to safety. There are no injuries. The video of the bus on fire transmitted by a faithful reader.
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Innovation: Nîmes Métropole is testing electric buses on its transport network

Bengal Graphic
www.barrons.com

39 Killed In Senegal Bus Disaster

Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 100 others injured when two buses crashed in a head-on collision overnight on an arterial road in Senegal's central Kaffrine region, President Macky Sall told reporters Sunday.
www.barrons.com www.barrons.com
https://twitter.com/x/status/1612690765297356800

https://twitter.com/x/status/1614303226840612864

https://twitter.com/x/status/1613920241595351040
 
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