Josh Myers speaks to bus drivers about complacency
Hunter Pitt was only six years old when he was killed by his school bus, right in front of his older sister.
St. Louis, Missouri (PRWEB) September 04, 2015
Kids may have just gotten back to school, but bus drivers began their training early. St. Louis personal injury lawyers Stephen Schultz and Josh Myers, both partners of Schultz & Myers Law Firm, took a trip across the state of Missouri to help prevent bus accident tragedies.
While most injury attorneys join in the conversation after tragedies occur, Stephen Schultz and Josh Myers dedicated time this month to teach bus drivers about safety, and help to prevent tragedies from happening in the first place. Most recently, the injury attorneys at Schultz & Myers presented to bus driver trainees at the Hillyard Technical Center about how to keep our kids safe. The two day event was also covered by a local FOX 2 News affiliate.
As Stephen Schultz and Josh Myers explained to trainees, a common contributor to bus accident tragedies is complacency, and complacency can manifest itself in a number of ways. Complacency is thought to be that line of thinking that “it could never happen to me.”
When bus drivers hear the same message over and over, the urgency is diminished. Crashes don’t happen often, and it hasn’t happened to them, so they put it out of their mind. But the founding partners at Schultz & Myers have been affected by one case in particular that made them want to get bus drivers talking about accidents and preventing them.
On January 18, 2011, Bus driver Willie Leonberger was dropping kids off for school when the unthinkable happened; Leonberger moved the bus forward after a stop, quickly discovering that he had run over a little boy. Hunter Pitt was only six years old when he was killed by his school bus, right in front of his older sister.
The Pitt family came to Schultz & Myers for legal help while they were living through a parent’s worst nightmare. Ultimately, Schultz & Myers secured a verdict of $11,494,637.38 for Hunter’s family in their wrongful death claim (Case No. 1222-CC09848, 22nd Circuit Court, St. Louis, MO). However, as the Pitt family made clear, money would not make them whole again. Matthew Pitt wanted to make sure no father had to experience what he did.
That’s when the personal injury attorneys at Schultz & Myers did something a bit unorthodox in their profession. The attorneys developed an education plan; Leonberger would speak in video to further educating bus drivers, students, teachers, and parents, about how to prevent bus accidents from happening.
At Schultz & Myers, the attorneys want safety to be the number one priority. Since the Pitt family’s case ended, Stephen Schultz and Josh Myers have travelled to places like the Hillyard Technical Center to teach bus drivers, parents, and kids to be safe. No one is out to villainize bus drivers. In fact, both Stephen Schultz and Josh Myers have represented bus drivers themselves in matters involving serious personal injury and workers compensation claims.
Ultimately, the goal is education; reduce the number of bus accidents, so that individuals don’t need an attorney in the first place. Of course, this is something that can only happen in a perfect world. When accidents happen, Schultz & Myers can help.
Stephen Schultz and Josh Myers have received numerous awards and accolades both in the state of Missouri, and at a national level. the Bus Accident Attorneys at Schultz & Myers have been included in Best Lawyers in America and Rated by Super Lawyers. Both partners are members of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, and lifetime members of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. They have been featured in Missouri Lawyers Weekly and interviewed on local news channels.
In addition to Bus Accident Law, Schultz & Myers represent victims who have been injured in commercial motor vehicle accidents, car accidents, workplace injuries, and other injury cases.
Learn more at http://www.SchultzMyers.com