18 injured when car strikes bus in Massachusetts crash

On behalf of Aiken and Aiken P.C. Personal Injury Attorneys posted in Car Accidents, on Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Eighteen people, including a bus driver, suffered injuries in an Aug. 12 accident involving an MBTA bus and a car. Police believed that drug use played a role in the car accident and arrested the car’s driver, a 30-year-old Franklin man who had two previous arrests for operating under the influence.The accident occurred around 10:40 a.m. in the 1100 block of North Main Street in Randolph. The 30-year-old man was traveling south in a dark blue Ford 500 sedan when he crossed the center lane of the road and crashed head-on into the bus, which was traveling in the northbound lane. Some of the people aboard the bus complained of neck, back and leg pain at the scene of the accident. Paramedics took the injured people to area hospitals. None of them appeared to have serious injuries.Police arrested the Ford’s driver at the scene of the accident. He pleaded not guilty to charges of operating under the influence of drugs in Quincy District Court on Aug. 13. His attorney said that the pain pills the man took a few hours before the accident were prescribed to him after dental surgery, and the medication made him black out behind the wheel just before the crash. The judge set cash bail at $5,000 and ordered the man not to drive and to comply with random drug and alcohol screenings until the case concluded.Neck and back pain following a car accident may be warning signs of herniated discs or other complications, which may leave victims in need of surgery to treat chronic pain and limited mobility. Injured people may struggle with medical debt resulting from their accidents. Personal injury attorneys may be able to help victims of car accidents determine if they are eligible to file suit against impaired drivers. Source: WHDH, “Car driver in MBTA bus crash appeared in court“, Steve Cooper, August 14, 2014