Mount Laurel Woman Injured in Fatal Bus Crash Files Suit

A Mount Laurel woman is seeking more than $50,000 in damages for injuries suffered in a bus crash in which four other passengers, including an 18-year-old New Jersey woman, died. (1) (2)

Twenty-six-year-old Candice Burks sustained serious neck, head and back injuries in the crash which occurred in early September in the Salina suburb of Syracuse, NY. Burks, along with 27 other passengers, was riding the double-decker bus traveling from Philadelphia to Toronto, Canada, when it crashed into a railroad bridge abutment at 2:30 a.m. (1)

According to reports, the bus usually makes a rest stop at the Syracuse depot but, on the night of the accident, the bus wound up on the parkway instead of the road to the depot. Both the depot and the parkway entrance ramp are located at the same exit off Interstate 81. Choosing the wrong direction at the fork intersection would put a vehicle on the parkway a short distance from the bridge. That stretch of road offers no place for a vehicle to pull off or room to turn around. (3)

Although there are several signs warning of the low bridge, the double-decker bus hit the abutment and flipped over on its side.

Emergency responders took less than an hour to rescue all the passengers and transport the injured to a nearby hospital where 20 were treated and released, one was listed in critical condition and four others were listed in serious condition. (2)

The suit named John Tomaszewski, driver of the bus, and Olympia Trails Bus Co. and Coach USA, owners and operators of the bus. (1)

(1) http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/nj_woman_sues_over_injuries_fr.html

(2) http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/megabus_crash_survival_depende.html

(3) http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/officials-bus-crashes-near-syracuse-ny-4-dead/19629990