Jon Ostroff was featured in the The Legal Intelligencer’s October 2013 Article, ‘Greyhound Sued Over Pennsylvania Highway Crash Injuries’. Below are excerpts from this article.
The Greyhound bus company is being sued by a passenger who was among several injured when the bus he rode collided with the rear of a truck on a highway near Williamsport, Pa.
Jon Ostroff, managing partner of Ostroff Godshall Injury and Accident Lawyers, said that in addition to William and Gloria Koomson, who filed their cause of action against Greyhound Lines Inc. on Oct. 18 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, another family is preparing to initiate a complaint against Greyhound in the same court.
Ostroff identified the second family as that of Son Thi Thanh Huang, who died when the force of the crash caused her to be ejected from the bus.
According to Ostroff, the Oct. 9 incident is the fourth highway crash of the year involving a Greyhound bus. He said it illustrates a trend in terms of Greyhound’s practices.
“There is a problem at Greyhound, there is not adequate fatigue management for drivers. The real problem is that drivers drive continuously at different times of day. Anywhere from 10 to 24 hours later they’ll get another route. So, unlike a school bus driver who drives the same time every day, there is no regularity in their scheduling, they have no sleep cycle,” Ostroff said.
Alexandra Pedrini, a spokeswoman for Greyhound, declined to comment on the matter.
Ostroff said William Koomson sustained injuries to his back, neck and jaw; had broken teeth; had a concussion; and displayed symptoms of brain injury.
Koomson and his wife, who are suing for loss of consortium in addition to the injury claims in Koomson v. Greyhound Lines, filed a complaint that alleged that Greyhound was negligent in allowing a fatigued driver to operate a bus.
Additionally, the complaint alleged that Greyhound knew its driver in the incident, Sabrina Anderson, was too tired to operate a bus, but allowed her to do so anyway.
The complaint also claimed that, among other things, Greyhound failed to comply with federal regulations that lay out the maximum amount of time a driver can operate without taking a break.
Ostroff said that Greyhound had no policies or systems in place to regulate driver fatigue, and that in similar accident cases involving the company this year, driver fatigue has played a significant role.
“In my litigation with Greyhound, I’ve found that no one there is monitoring fatigue,” Ostroff said. “There is no supervisor there making sure they’re awake and alert. This is a real, ongoing problem and it’s not getting better.”
Regulation and Enforcement
Lawyers who have litigated cases involving the bus industry said it is underregulated and the regulations that do exist tend to be poorly enforced.
The full article can be viewed online at here. The article, by P.J. D’Annunzio,was published in The Legal Intelligencer on October 2013.
Related Topics: PA Highway Crash Injuries
https://ostrofflaw.com/wake-up-greyhound/
