Girl, 11, dies after falling out of party bus window
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PORTLAND, Ore. – An 11-year-old girl died Saturday night when she fell out of a party bus in downtown Portland, police said.
Family and friends were riding the bus to a quinceanera party, a Latino celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday.
Angie Hernandez leaned against an emergency window when it opened, family members said. Police are calling the death a tragic accident. She died at the scene.
There were between 20 and 30 people on the bus, many of them children, when Hernandez fell out.
“We were so happy for this day. We were waiting for this day for so long. We were all so excited,” said Hernandez’s uncle Roberto Avelaneda. “I don’t have words to explain. We’re really upset about it.”
The bus full of children turned from Southwest 1st Avenue onto Harrison Street at around 6 p.m. when Hernandez fell out of the window.
“Those emergency exits are designed to be secured and closed and locked,” said Portland Police spokesman Robert King. “One of the questions I know investigators will be asking is how it came to be open, whether it was faulty.”
King says the driver of the bus cooperated with police and there was no indication that alcohol was involved in the accident.
Heartbreaking as it is, it is obvious that her parents didn't teach her not to lean on/against windows.
Common sense goes a LONG way toward keeping us healthy and alive.
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This story is so incredibly heartbreaking. :(
Another tragic accident; prayers for the family and friends. RIP, angel!
There is not a lot of information here. It sounds like the latch for an emergency exit was not properly secured or was faulty.  The police have clearly stated that there was no indication of alcohol involvement. Not that the driver was sober, but âno indication of alcohol involvementâ which would include anyone on the bus. It does sound like there is going to be some problem for who ever is responsible for the maintenance of the bus. At this point we have a very tragic accident, which may have been preventable with proper maintenance and the little girl sitting in her seat. Had she been sitting, she likely could not have been thrown into the window in the first place. Had the window had a proper latch, or had it been properly secured, that still could have prevented this. If the window is designed to be âkicked outâ, that is just pushed out with sufficient force, then it is all on the parents for allowing her to stand (or what ever) while the bus was in motion. Like most of these stories, we will never know as there is almost no follow up.       Â
The Oregonian article states that the buss had about 20~30 people on it going to the party...not partying it up on the bus. She fell out when it turned: Â "...the force of the girlâs body against the window during the turn caused her to fall out. She died at the scene of her injuries."
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 @teahater Why is it that we increasingly read more and more information in the comments than KOMO staff can find on its own? Talk about "community reporter" â seems the entire community reports a lot better than KOMO does, both its competing news outlets and regular, non-trained citizens who are also doing their own jobs in addition to KOMO staff's work.Â
Article says the diver has cooperated and that there was no indication that alcohol was involved. Does that pertain to the driver or to the adults in the bus? I suspect that there WAS alcohol involved but not on the drivers part. I also suspect that the window was opened by the passengers so they could hang out of it to whoop and holler in celebration. Safety precautions elude many people.
 @Robinsnest Maybe if this was college kids on Spring Break... a quinceanera probably involves less pregame drinking than you think it does. Also, the cops would have arrested someone if they had drunkenly pushed a girl out a window- pretty sure her family members would be talking about that if it had happened.
very sad story. terrible sadness for the family obviously.
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lets see what really happened before you ghouls start gleefully blaming people.
Why are these kids allowed to be up moving around in a moving vehicle? Emergency exits are not suppost to be blocked at any time and a kid leaning up against one would definately be blocking it. I am really sorry for the family and friends, but sometimes adults need to step in and enforce the safety rules for children, something apparently no one on this bus did.
 @Jatok "Emergency exits are not suppost to be blocked at any time," I don't know if you ever rode on a public school bus, but there are seats that students can sit on that do block the emergancy exit when occupied.
I never understood why seat belts aren't mandatory on buses.
@Rockberry  I believe when it comes to school buses, it's a matter of one operator not being able to unbuckle many injured/panicked  children in case quick egress is required. . Submersion, fire etc.
 @achoo2 I think it's probably more likely the cost of implementing it.
@Commenter87643Â Â Â Â Â Gemini?
 @two loons  @achoo2 Not according to what I read in multiple places:
This from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40820669/ns/us_news-life/t/why-your-childs-school-bus-has-no-seat-belts/
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Cost and risks of seat belts School and transportation officials cite two other main reasons for declining to install seat belts:
⢠Cost. Separate studies by the NHTSA and the University of Alabama(.pdf) concluded that installing seat belts would add anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a new bus while having little to no impact on safety.
Seat belts would also take up room that's now used for seats, meaning "fewer children can be accommodated on each row," according to the Alabama study. That could require school systems to increase their bus fleets by as much as 15 percent just to transport the same number of pupils, it suggested.
"The cost of installing seat belts on every bus at once is prohibitive," said the authors of the Alabama study, the October release of which was highly anticipated by school officials nationwide because it is among the first large-scale analyses of the subject.
Seat belts would have to be phased in over a decade at a minimum cost of $117 million per state. That cost could be prohibitive, "especially when the nation is dealing with an economic downturn," the study said.
⢠Safety. Numerous safety agencies say seat belts aren't the best choice for children, which is why nearly all states require container-like full car seats for younger kids in passenger cars.
"Lap/shoulder belts can be misused and NHTSA's testing showed that serious neck injury and perhaps abdominal injury could result when lap/shoulder belts are misused," the NHTSA warnedin its study, adding that "increased capital costs, reduced seating capacities, and other unintended consequences associated with lap/shoulder belts could result in more children seeking alternative means of traveling to and from school."
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"Even the smallest reduction in the number of bus riders could result in more children being killed or injured when using alternative forms of transportation," it said.
Most popular Moreover, passengers have to remain seated and locked in for seat belts to work, but as any parent can tell you, children and adolescents don't sit still."
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In this article, from
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/09/05/good-question-why-dont-school-buses-have-seat-belts/
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Tthe possible need for fast evacuation is mentioned, but it comes in 3rd after other safety measures and after cost:
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The National Highway Transportation Safety Agency took a detailed look at this issue. They concluded that seat belts would make a difference in smaller buses, weighing under 10,000 pounds. They concluded that it would make sense to increase seat back height from 20 inches to 24 inches.
Both of those recommendations have been adopted in Minnesota, which is why smaller buses do have lap and shoulder belts.
Researchers in Alabama spent three years analyzing a dozen buses where seat belts were installed.
They found that a lap and shoulder belt, used correctly, would make a difference. The kids put them on 61.5 percent of the time. But itâs so rare that a child dies inside a bus, researchers figured it would cost $32 to $38 million to result in one life saved.
âIf you had all the money you could do that, but we donât,â Paulson said . âMany school buses, school districts have funding issues.â
There are also concerns that if there would be a need to quickly evacuate a bus, kindergarteners and first graders might have a hard time unbuckling their seat belts quickly.
According to the Alabama researchers, three times more kids die outside the bus during loading and unloading, and if thereâs extra money to be spent, it should be spent there first.
 @Commenter87643  @achoo2 nope- it's what he/she said.
How about not leaning on windows in the first place? I feel sorry for the family and friends of this girl, but seriously...you never know when they're going to give out, secured or not!
 @DMT Is there *anything* in this article that indicates she was doing something she wasn't supposed to have been doing???