Monday, January 22, 2007

Hazards at work, 22

A federal appeals court upheld an $8 million verdict against Greyhound Lines for a woman injured while on her way to Atlanta when another passenger cut the driver's neck and the bus crashed, just after the September 11 terrorist attacks made her afraid to fly.

The Greyhound bus was traveling from Chicago to Orlando, Florida on October 3, 2001, when a 29-year-old Croatian man attacked driver Garfield Sands around 4 a.m. as the bus was passing through Manchester.

The bus crashed on rural Interstate 24 between Chattanooga and Nashville. Six passengers, including the attacker, were killed. A seventh died later at a hospital and 34 others on board were injured.

The driver was admitted to a hospital with two 5-inch-long, 2-inch-deep cuts on his neck.

The crash prompted Greyhound to shut down all bus service for a few hours, and the FBI was called in to investigate whether it was an act of terrorism. Croatian media reported that the attacker suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Greyhound spokeswoman said the company has since installed shields that separate drivers from passengers on all of its more than 1,200 buses nationwide.

At the trial on the woman's lawsuit, her attorney introduced reports showing 42 other incidents of passengers grabbing or attempting to assault or grab the driver, steering wheel or brakes.

Source

No comments: