Fatal Bronx Bus Crash Apparently Due to Fatigue

NY Post- The passengers didn’t have a chance.


Federal investigators yesterday released a dramatic video reconstruction of the early-morning New England Thruway bus crash that killed 15 and injured 18 — showing the path of the doomed World Wide Tours coach in its final seconds.




In the computer simulation of the March 2011 disaster, the bus careens off the travel lanes and across the 10-foot-wide shoulder.



Then the right side of the 26-ton bus — on its way to Chinatown from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut — flips onto the guardrail, and skids along the barrier for several seconds before crushing it.


The coach then flips fully onto its right side and blasts into a stanchion holding up a roadway sign, which slices through the bus roof like a hot knife through butter.



As the bus initially veered off the road, fatigued driver Ophadell Williams — who might have had as little as three hours’ sleep in the previous three days — never slammed on the brakes or made any effort to steer out of harm’s way, the National Transportation Safety Board said.



Seat belts would have saved lives and prevented injuries in the crash, the NTSB concluded, but the passenger seats had none.



The NTSB also faulted the location of the signpost just 15 feet from the travel lanes of the Thruway.



If the roadway had been properly designed, the signpost either would have been at least 30 feet away or protected by a far stronger barrier, the NTSB said.

Still, most of the blame for the crash rested with Williams’ failure to get enough sleep and with his driving the bus too fast.



Just 60 seconds before the disaster, Williams was driving at 78 mph in a 50-mph zone, the feds found.



And in the 10 seconds before the crash, the bus was moving at 64 mph.



“Together, fatigue and speed are an especially lethal combination,” said NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, adding that driver sleepiness has been a factor in seven of the last 19 motor-coach accidents investigated by the board.



Along with the computer simulation, the NTSB also released video graphics showing how seat belts would have prevented injuries.



One simulation shows unbelted passengers tumbling into each other — bodies were contorted between the seats and luggage racks — as the bus turned onto its side.



A second shows how the passengers would have been held in their seats by lap and shoulder belts.



On the World Wide Tours crash bus, only the driver’s seat had a belt.



Seat belts would be mandatory in all new motor coaches under a rule now being considered by the US Department of Transportation.



Bus-industry lobbyists are on board with the idea — and they note that even though it’ll be years before the new rule takes effect, seat belts are already standard on new motor coaches.



“It’s almost impossible to buy a large bus without seat belts,” said Victor Parra of the American Motorcoach Association. “Most companies are being proactive.”



NTSB investigators also cited a litany of other issues.



World Wide Tours was responsible for “inadequate safety oversight” of Williams and did a poor job of checking his background, which includes a manslaughter conviction in a fatal stabbing and a horrendous driving record that includes 18 license suspensions.



Williams had applied for driver’s licenses under fake names and had lied on job applications for casino clerk and MTA bus driver.



And just three days before the deadly Bronx crash, Williams was involved in a minor bus crash on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.



Williams was recently indicted by a Bronx grand jury on 15 counts of manslaughter.



“Drivers with poor driving records are more likely to be involved in a future accident,” NTSB investigators noted.



Board members were astonished that World Wide Tours was denied a Defense Department contract to transport troops but was still allowed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to carry paying passengers.



“Something seems to be badly broken” if one government agency deemed the company unsafe, while another did not, said NTSB member Robert Sumwalt.



And, amazingly, although World Wide Tours is formally out of business, the NTSB says the company’s employees and buses are up and running under the business name Great Escapes, which operates out of the same garage that WWT used in Brooklyn’s Gowanus section.


A Great Escapes employee hung up the phone on a reporter yesterday.

Police: Vermont Man Killed in Gun Prank

(CNN) -- A 24-year-old Vermont man was fatally shot by a friend who used a gun in a prank, police said.

The alleged shooter apparently tried to prank his sleeping friend by waking him up with the loud sound of an air rifle, police said.

However, police said, the man mistakenly used a real rifle in the prank.

Nicholas Bell, 23, was charged with manslaughter after the incident Thursday, Manchester police said.

"The accused fired the weapon, which was a loaded .22 cal rifle hitting the [victim] in the chest," a police statement said. "The victim died at the scene."

The victim was identified as 24-year-old Jeffrey Charbonneau.

Both men were guests at the Manchester home where the shooting occurred, police said.

Bell was jailed and bail was set at $250,000.

Man Pleads Not Guilty in Nick Adenhart’s Death

Thank you to *Kevin* for bringing this article to my attention, I was wondering about updates in this case:

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP)—The man charged with killing Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart(notes) and two others in a drunken-driving crash pleaded not guilty Monday to three counts of murder as relatives of the victims looked on.

Andrew Thomas Gallo also pleaded not guilty through his attorney to three other felony charges and one misdemeanor in connection with the April 9 collision that occurred just hours after Adenhart pitched six scoreless innings in his season debut.

The 22-year-old Gallo watched from inside a security enclosure as defense attorney Randall Longwith entered the pleas before an Orange County Superior Court judge. About 15 members of Gallo’s family were in court.

While waiting for Gallo to appear, 24-year-old Jon Wilhite, the lone member of Adenhart’s group to survive, began to sob. Wilhite, who had critical injuries in the wreck, was embraced by friends and family.

Longwith said later in an interview that he will seek a change of venue because he believes Gallo cannot get a fair trial in Orange County, home of the Angels and the California State University, Fullerton, baseball team for which Wilhite had played.

The attorney noted that in another courthouse where Gallo made a previous appearance, an Angels poster was in the hallway leading to the courtroom.

Longwith also said there have been death threats against Gallo and himself via the Internet, phone and in a letter.

“I think people are venting and it’s just evidence of the passion people have in this case. I don’t think it’s a true threat,” he said, noting he had not brought it to the district attorney’s attention.

Deputy District Attorney Susan Price disputed the need for moving the case.

“We don’t believe that the defendant will be any more prejudiced in this county than in any other county,” said Price, who was flanked by the victims’ family members at a brief news conference outside the courtroom.

All the families declined to comment after the hearing. Some family members wore T-shirts and large buttons emblazoned with photos of their children.

Price said Gallo faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 45 years to life in prison if convicted of the three second-degree murder charges. If convicted of all charges, the minimum would be 54 years and eight months to life.

Police have said Gallo had nearly triple the legal blood-alcohol level when the minivan he was driving ran a red light in Fullerton and broadsided the silver Mitsubishi Eclipse carrying Adenhart and three friends to a dance club to celebrate his success.

The impact spun around both vehicles, and one then struck another car but that driver was not hurt, police said.

Gallo fled on foot and was captured about 30 minutes later, police said.

The 22-year-old Adenhart died in surgery at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center. Another passenger, 25-year-old Henry Nigel Pearson of Manhattan Beach, and the driver, 20-year-old Courtney Frances Stewart of Diamond Bar, died at the scene.

Stewart was a student at nearby Cal State Fullerton, where she was a cheerleader in 2007-08. Pearson, who played high school baseball with Wilhite, was a graduate of Arizona State University and was pursuing a law degree when he died.

Wilhite, of Manhattan Beach, was hospitalized for weeks for “internal decapitation,” a rare and often fatal separation of the skull from the spinal column.

Wilhite, who played baseball from 2004-08 at Fullerton, has since been discharged from the hospital and is undergoing outpatient physical therapy.

He came to the arraignment in a wheelchair but was able to get up and enter the courtroom under his own power, albeit with an unsteady gait. His head was closely shaved and had a long scar at the base of the skull.

He and his family declined to comment after the arraignment.

Longwith noted that Gallo was being housed in a 14-man jail cell and was not in protective custody. He said his client is frequently in tears during their meetings and was crying when he came into court.

“He was pretty much in shock,” Longwith said.