VIA Driver on Suspension After Pedestrian Accident
A VIA bus driver has been suspended after a bus accident in San Antonio involving a pedestrian in early January.
Details about the VIA Driver Suspension
According to KENS 5 News in San Antonio, a VIA Metropolitan Transit bus driver has been suspended and put on probation at VIA after she hit a man with a bus downtown on Monday, January 11.
41-year-old Brian Cochran was walking across the street when a bus turning onto Frio Street blindsided him. VIA confirmed that Heather Davila was suspended on Friday but declined to reveal the reason for the suspension.
Confirmation of the suspension came just hours after the agency revealed their new safety plan that is aimed, in part, to cutting down the number of pedestrian accidents involving VIA vehicles.
The new initiative is called “VIAware,” and has been release just weeks after a 71-year-old woman was pulled under a VIA bus and killed while trying to flag it down at Soledad and Commerce Street.
The victim in that accident, Audrey Palulis, was pulled underneath the bus when her walker she was using got caught under the tire, according to an accident report by the San Antonio Police Department.
Part of the purpose of VIAware is to teach the basics and to partner with AAPR and the San Antonio Police Department to reach out to seniors to teach them to use the transit system safely.
Pedestrian Fatalities in the United States
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association:
- There were 4,735 reported pedestrian fatalities in the United States in 2013 – a 2 percent decrease in the number of fatalities from the previous year.
- In 2013, there were a total of 27,984 other motor vehicle fatalities – which means that pedestrian fatalities counted for a total of 14 percent of all motor–vehicle related fatalities that year.
- From January through June in 2014, Texas had one of the highest amounts of pedestrian fatalities in the United States at 231 fatalities.
