Baltimore Auto Accident News: Two Teenagers Critically Injured when SUV Hits Howard County School Bus

When it comes to traffic collisions, it certainly doesn’t take much to send a person to the hospital emergency room. Whether one drives in or around Baltimore, Annapolis, Columbia or Washington, D.C., a week doesn’t go by when you might see at least one car, truck or motorcycle wreck on the street. For our part, as Maryland personal injury attorneys and drivers ourselves, we know all too well the hazards and potential dangers of driving in this part of the country.

Of course, one doesn’t have to live in the East to know that teenager drivers, at least as a group, are more prone to being involved in traffic accidents than other age groups. This may sound somewhat pejorative, but statistics from across the U.S. tend to bear this out, which is why parents all over the country tend to dread the day when their kids become drivers, if only because the family’s auto insurance premiums take a big jump up.

While nobody looks forward to a car or truck accident, parents especially can spend sleepless nights worrying about their teen sons and daughters borrowing the family car to drive friends to a movie or to go out to eat after high school sporting event. A phone call from the local police is a nightmare scenario that any mother or father would rather not consider, but they do occur, usually at the most unexpected times.

Case in point, a recent traffic collisions in Ellicott City, MD, resulted in a number of teenagers being sent to University of Maryland’s Shock Trauma Center after the vehicle in which they were riding hit a school bus. According to news articles, Maryland State Police responded to reports of a traffic wreck in the vicinity of Baltimore National Pike and Pebble Beach Dr.

News reports indicate that three teenagers were traveling east along a stretch of the Pike just after 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon. Based on police reports it appears that the 2009 Honda SUV in which the three victims were riding turned into the path of a Howard County school bus. An initial police investigation at the time of the news article indicated that the bus, which was reportedly empty of passengers at the time of the accident, had the right of way at the intersection when the wreck occurred.

Based on news reports, the driver and the rear-seat passenger were critically injured as a result of the collision. The driver, whose name had yet to be released pending a completed investigation, and 16-year-old Patrick Moore, who was riding in the back seat, were both choppered out to Shock Trauma with life-threatening injuries.

Seventeen-year-old Thomas Drago was taken by ambulance to Shock Trauma with non-life threatening injuries, according to police reports. The two people on board the bus, 52-year-old Anne Mullinix of Sykesville, MD, and 53-year-old Ruth Mathis of West Friendship, were reportedly uninjured as a result of the traffic crash.

If the police investigation were to turn up fault on the part of the driver, then it is certainly possible that charges could be lodged against the teen in relation to the accident. As stated previously, the bus had the green light at the time of the crash, and therefore had the right of way prior to the collision.

Ellicott City Teens Go to Shock Trauma After Collision with School Bus, Patch.com, February 21, 2012

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