A Wolf’s Bus Line tour bus crashed through a guardrail and slid down a 45 foot tree-covered embankment on Interstate 270 near Bethesda, Maryland recently. The bus driver, Joseph A. Clabaugh Jr. was found dead at the scene. All eleven passengers, including five children, were injured in the crash and treated at local hospitals. Four passengers were hospitalized with more severe injuries. The tourists were returning from a trip to the Washington, DC National Zoo when the bus crashed off an elevated I-270 ramp.
The bus driver was later found to have died of a heart attack, which likely caused the accident. Clabaugh was reportedly sweating profusely before the crash, and passengers asked the driver if he was alright just before the crash.
The mid-Atlantic AAA is calling for stronger guardrails in response to the recent crash. AAA spokesman John Townsend II says the group has raised concerns in the past that Maryland’s guardrails are not adequate to prevent serious accidents. The National Transportation Safety Board will examine the guardrails and barriers at the scene, as well as the bus, as part of their investigation.
This is not the only recent crash a Wolf’s Bus has been involved in. In 2008, a Wolf’s Bus carrying middle school children crashed near Gettysburg, PA after a field trip to Washington, DC. The bus driver was driving 71 mph in a 65 zone and says the front tire went flat. Thirty-eight people were injured in that crash.
Callahan & Blaine, California’s premier litigation firm, is one of the leading firms in the state of California, and handles serious personal injury, wrongful death and product liability cases nationwide. In fact, in the last 5 years alone we’ve obtained over $1.2 billion in verdicts and settlements.
If you or someone you know has suffered a catastrophic injury or died as the result of a tour bus or city bus accident, please contact our California law firm for expert legal counsel.
