A tour bus full of California high school students taking part in Humboldt State University’s Annual Preview Plus recruiting program was hit head on by a FedEx semi-truck going the opposite direction on the freeway Thursday night. Ten people were killed in the accident, along with five students.
New details of the accident are still being reported, but it seems like answers remain far off. A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said the resolution of who or what was at fault in this horrific accident could take months.
Until that resolution comes, the thirty-four people who were taken to local area hospitals will have to manage the expenses related to their medical care individually. The aim of the University’s Preview Plus program, which started in the 1990s, is to help low-income students from Los Angeles and San Francisco attend college. Considering this, it is unlikely that all those students who were injured in the horrible accident will have health insure carriers that will fully absorb the costs of their treatment.
Since there will be a long period of time before authorities can determine who or what was at fault, the personal injury and wrongful death claims that come out of this accident will take time to develop. The last thing that anyone wants is for any of these students to experience a gap in medical coverage due to this lengthy process. It is therefore imperative that those involved in this accident and their families speak to an experienced personal injury attorney.
Further, this accident shows how immensely dangerous semi-trucks can be. While trucks belonging to FedEx, UPS, and DHL form the backbone of our commercial freight across the country, an accident of this magnitude highlights how perilous it can be for anything or anyone who gets in their way.
Unfortunately in tragedies like this, no one wins. If you or a loved one have been a victim of injury in a truck accident, please contact Cohn & Swartzon, P.C. As a victim there is little, if anything, you could have done to prevent the accident, but there is a way to make sure that you and your family are not harmed further by the costly financial burden of such an experience.
Cohn & Swartzon has been handling trucking accident lawsuits for many years and have helped individuals and families in and around Orange County, California and surrounding areas, including Santa Ana, Irvine, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Yorba Linda, Anaheim, Fullerton, Brea and the surrounding communities.