This one hit - both figuratively and literally - close to home. The proven personal injury law firm of Restivo & Murphy is located on Long Island, which was the locale in which a catastrophic bus accident occurred this past Sunday evening.
Pictures from the accident scene tell a graphic story, but what they don't reveal from images of a shattered charter bus with its roof torn off is this: the absence of a death toll.
That tragic result could easily have ensued for the 40-plus students and chaperones returning to Huntington after a spring break to Europe. Their bus was on a roadway where commercial vehicles are banned, given bridges too low to safely allow for vehicle clearance.
The driver did not know that. He was in fact guided to an unsafe Long Island highway by a GPS system.
The inevitable happened. When the bus hit a bridge, notes one national news report, its roof was ripped off "down to the top of the seats."
A New York State police spokesperson noted the obvious after it was determined that - amazingly - no fatalities occurred from the crash.
"This could have been tragic," he said.
Arguably, it still was. There were reportedly 38 teenage students on the bus, and dozens of them were injured. Every student and all chaperones were taken to local hospitals. News reports indicate that two students remain hospitalized as of the date of this post.
The crash outcome was of course a comparative blessing, given its potential to have easily resulted in something far worse.
Still, it is deeply troubling. One local government official duly notes that "a lot of questions need to be answered."