ALL:
The county attorney has granted immunity to the train and engine crew in the school bus incident in Henderson, TX. I don't understand why that happened? The NP Conductors and Engineers schedules allow pay for attend inquests and hearings.
Ed Burns
More facts of the story are needed!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
https://www.kltv.com/2020/08/11/judge-oks-immunity-railroad-employees-involved-fatal-athens-bus-crash-case/
"The fact immunity was offered in the first place was only to facilitate the proceedings in this case and the defense request for depositions. It in no way suggests that either the conductor or engineer were in any way responsible for the collision that took the life of Christopher Bonilla and severely injured Joselyne Torres, as I believe the facts will show that the only person responsible for that is the defendant, Mr. Stevens."
Local news story: https://www.kltv.com/2020/08/11/judge-oks-immunity-railroad-employees-involved-fatal-athens-bus-crash-case/
Perhaps this is related to the discussion we've had here - to dump the train or not. I would opine that the DA doesn't want his prosecution of the bus driver side tracked by that "coulda woulda shoulda" discussion. I could also be wrong.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
rdamonhttps://www.kltv.com/2020/08/11/judge-oks-immunity-railroad-employees-involved-fatal-athens-bus-crash-case/ "The fact immunity was offered in the first place was only to facilitate the proceedings in this case and the defense request for depositions. It in no way suggests that either the conductor or engineer were in any way responsible for the collision that took the life of Christopher Bonilla and severely injured Joselyne Torres, as I believe the facts will show that the only person responsible for that is the defendant, Mr. Stevens."
Considering how capricious 'criminal prosecutions' can be in today's litigious society I don't fault the UP employees requesting immunity for their testimony as any 'defense' attorney will try his best to make the UP employees the one's criminally responsible.
I would also presume that UP would also have been ordered to present the forward facing video from the engine that was involved in the incident.
Here is a link to the news of the crash right after it happened:
https://www.athensreview.com/news/local_news/athens-police-release-crash-report-on-bus-train-collision/article_2562bfa6-2e49-11e9-9349-e7bf05061b05.html
It would take some thought to unravel what actually occurred based on these news reports. Apparently the crossing shown in the video of the link in the third post here is not the crossing where the collision occurred. I assume this because the link I post here says the train pushed the bus 1,000 feet after impact, and the a the link in the third post shows the train to have pushed the bus a distance of only about 100 feet beyond that crossing.
Also the crossing where the collision occurred is reported to be a passive crossing with only crossbucks and yield signs, whereas the crossing in the link in the third post has flashing lights and possibly gates, although the gates are not clearly visible.
I understand that a state law also requires school busses to stop at passive crossings in addition to yielding according to the signs. The report says that the schoolbus driver did stop at the crossing but then proceeded right into the path of the approaching train. The train then pushed the schoolbus 1,000 feet which carried it through the subsequent crossing shown in the video of the link in the third post, and about 100 feet beyond that crossing.
In the link I posted, it says that the train blew the horn for 30 seconds prior to impact, and it says that was twice as long as required. One might interpret this as meaning that the engineer blew the horn continuously for 30 seconds prior to impact, but I suspect it means that the standard “two longs, a short, and a long” signal consumed 30 seconds. I do not know if that is unusual or any sort of violation. I would assume it is neither.
The report says that the schoolbus driver stopped at the crossing and then immediately drove across in front of the train. To me, this suggests that the schoolbus driver had become habituated to stopping at the crossing, as the law required; and not encountering any train. So he obeyed the law to stop, but slacked off on the vigilance to watch for trains. He began to feel that stopping was the only requirement.
in this state a school bus driver is required to stop not closer than 15 feet from track, open door to listen, then close door and cross. At crossings so marked stop short of the solid white line. That is all crossing warnings protected or not protected.
blue streak 1in this state a school bus driver is required to stop not closer than 15 feet from track, open door to listen, then close door and cross.
You can bet your bottom dollar very careful efforts will be made to find some way to assign UP some seemingly-nominal part of the responsibility. Neither the driver nor the school district will likely have the money or the insurance to cover the damages here. Any part they can't or won't would be UP's 'deep-pockets' liability when they cam't
A 78-year old school bus driver? What could possibly go wrong?
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