Areas such as Brooklyn see their share of bus crashes, with school bus, tour bus and MTA accidents often in the news.
Why does this happen? Sometimes, it happens for the same reasons car crashes do.
Urban environment
Brooklyn is an urban environment that combines high vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Bus drivers may have less room to maneuver in and less room for error. They drive alongside bicyclists, cars, motorcycles, other buses and vehicles such as garbage trucks. If they are unfamiliar with the area, they may need to rely on mapping apps to get around. That can lead to distracted driving.
Lack of training
Some bus drivers are hired with little or no training, which can be a disaster in urban environments. Ideally, training programs would include both classwork and work in the field, but a driver may have been absent for some of the studies. Also, training may not help a driver in some bad-weather scenarios such as ice or heavy rain.
Driver negligence
Sometimes, the bus driver seems to be at fault. For example, maybe he or she was driving while texting or was under the influence of alcohol.
Bus safety
Not everyone takes bus safety issues seriously. A company might not even train its drivers on how to do pre-drive or post-drive maintenance checks, or a driver might simply ignore these checklists sometimes. Similarly, a company could ignore maintenance requests or put an issue off until it drastically worsens.
Lack of passenger control
Bus drivers do not always set firm boundaries or rules for their passengers. Take a driver who apparently does not care if his or her passengers walk around freely while the bus is in motion. That could lead to injuries if the bus were to get hit or hit something–or even just brake suddenly. Likewise, a driver who lets too many passengers on the bus could overcrowd it and increase the likelihood of injuries.