On Monday, December 27, 2021, a Greyhound bus crash in rural Utah sent 32 people to area hospitals. The Greyhound bus was transporting 36 passengers from Green River, Utah, with its final destination Las Vegas, Nevada when it left the roadway and crashed.
Authorities say the Greyhound bus veered off the westbound side of I-70 near mile marker 112 in Emery County and continued for about 100 yards before it overturned. In the immediate aftermath, officials were uncertain what caused the vehicle to leave the roadway. A snowstorm went through the area on Monday night, but officials said road conditions at the time of the accident were not too bad.
Emergency teams from several counties responded to calls just before midnight and arrived on scene to find the Greyhound bus on its side in a ditch. Miraculously, no lives were lost. The injuries ranged from minor to serious, and authorities noted that all the victims are expected to make a full recovery.
Sherrill Maness of North Carolina was one of the victims. Maness was traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah along with another passenger, Jarrett Collins of Kentucky. Both were scheduled to attend a truck driver training program. According to Maness, she was “thrown all over the bus like a basketball” as the vehicle hurled off the road and into a ditch. “We’re lucky to be alive,” she said.
If you or someone in your family sustained injuries in a Greyhound bus accident, you may be able to pursue justice and compensation. To learn more about your legal rights, contact Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman bus accident attorneys today for a free and confidential case evaluation. To speak with our legal team, give us a call at (855) 948-5098
First responders faced difficult decisions on how to best care for the victims; the nearest cities of Emery and Green River do not have hospitals, and weather conditions prevented helicopters from airlifting the most seriously injured to hospitals. In the end, cooperation among several counties helped get the injured to hospitals.
Maness and Collins, however, found themselves in a difficult situation in the aftermath of the accident. They told local media that Greyhound had transported them to Las Vegas and put them up in a hotel, but the company only agreed to pay for their stay through Friday, December 31. As of Thursday, December 30, both Maness and Collins were still waiting on their luggage to be returned to them.
“We're still in Las Vegas waiting to get our stuff, and they will not pay for a way home unless it's back on a bus after we just had a crash,” Collins said. Both are reluctant to get back on a Greyhound after surviving such a traumatic accident. Greyhound reportedly offered to reimburse Maness and Collins if they chose another mode of travel, but without a cell phone or even money for food, the victims say Greyhound’s offer isn’t helpful.
The Utah Highway Patrol is leading the investigation into the cause of the Greyhound bus crash in Utah. They have also communicated with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as that agency usually investigates Greyhound bus accidents involving multiple injuries.
Greyhound Accident Statistics
Greyhound buses carry around 16 million passengers every year. While the vast majority of people make it to their final destination safely, some suffer the consequences of negligence-induced bus accidents.
According to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics, over the last two years, Greyhound buses have been involved in 63 crashes. Of those, three caused deaths and 29 left people with injuries. Some of these crashes were caused by reckless driving, fatigued driving, poor vehicle maintenance, or other preventable issues.
Greyhound Bus Crash Lawyers with Successful Track Record in Litigation
The bus crash lawyers at Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman have decades of experience litigating cases on behalf of clients harmed in Greyhound accidents. We are currently in active litigation after a fatal shooting on a Greyhound bus in 2020. Bus accident attorney Clay Robbins III, who has litigated numerous cases against Greyhound, has discussed the safety issues raised in the 2020 incident with ABC and NBC local affiliates.
BaumHedlundLaw attorney Clay Robbins tells 23ABC: Greyhound has the obligation and the ability to implement procedures to protect their passengers from these acts of violence in transit. https://t.co/aBZ4UW6ZNX @23ABCNews pic.twitter.com/wUIApzCkoU
— Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, PC (@baumhedlund) July 17, 2020
In 2017, our firm reached a $10 million bus crash settlement on behalf of clients who sustained injuries in a crash that occurred when the bus driver lost control of the vehicle, drove off the road at an unreasonable rate of speed, and crashed.
Some other reasons to consider Baum Hedlund bus crash attorneys for your case:
- Over $4 billion in verdicts and settlements across all practice areas
- 100 bus crash cases handled since 1988
- 27 passengers represented in a single bus accident
- $6,200,000 million settlement obtained for a single bus passenger
- Succeeded in getting U.S. jurisdiction in crashes in two foreign countries
- Extensive experience with difficult insurance coverage issues and complex choice of law
As advocates for safety of passengers and others using our highways, our firm has long pushed for the installation of advanced safety systems on buses. Passengers on Greyhound buses and other commercial buses should be protected by well-established safety features, including automatic braking, collision avoidance, lap and shoulder seatbelts, and lane deviation warning systems, among others. It is our belief that many tragic bus crashes and incidents could be avoided if manufacturers, owners, and operators invest in passenger safety when designing, manufacturing, buying, and operating buses.