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Disability - Accessibility - ADA Expert Witnesses: 10
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Psychoeducational Expert Steve Imber
Dr. Steve C. Imber
Ph.D.
Sprout Building
166 Valley Street
Providence RI
02909
USA
phone: 401-421-4004
fax: 401-233-0946
A Special Education expert for five decades, Dr. Steven C. Imber served as a professor of special education from 1973 2021. He serves as a special education advocate, consultant to attorneys, parents and schools. He has conducted more than 600 independent educational evaluations.
Education:
- B.S. Psychology (High Honors) State University of New York at Buffalo
- Doctoral Studies, Clinical Psychology, University of Connecticut
- M.A. from the Department of Educational Psychology (Special Education - Learning Disabilities), University of Connecticut (Kappa Delta Phi)
- Ph.D. from the Department of Educational Psychology (Special Education -Emotional Disturbance (High Honors)
As a special education expert, Dr. Imber has worked on cases with children, adolescents and adults with a broad array of disabilities. He provides professional advocacy and consultation for children with the following disabilities:
- Autism Disorders
- Attention Deficit Disorders
- Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
- Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Intellectual Disabilities (Cognitive Deficits)
- Learning Disabilities
- Other Disabilities and Disorders
Areas of Expertise:
- Criminal Defense of Individuals with Disabilities – competence to stand trial and comprehension of Miranda Warning Rights
- Family Custody Matters involving Disputes regarding matters of Education and Special Education
- School Safety
- Special Education Regulations and Law
- Wrongful Death
Dr. Imber has been involved in cases from the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
Depositions and Direct Testimony
Dr. Imber has testified in federal court, various district courts, superior court, family and probate court and in numerous due process hearings since 1975.
Below are listed recent cases in which Dr. Imber provided testimony during depositions or directly in various court matters:
- October 21, 2021, Family Court: State of Hawaii, Plaintiff
- October 19, 2021, Hancock County Circuit Court, West Virginia Criminal Action, Defendant
- September 29, 2021, Chicago Public Schools Cook County, Defendant
- July 6, 2021, Worcester County Probate and Family Court, Plaintiff
- August 10, 2021, Springfield District Court, Defendant
- May – June 2019, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Division of Administrative Law Appeals, Bureau of Special Education Appeals BSEA, Plaintiff
Additional Accomplishments
- Published several articles in national and international journals within the fields of special education and psychology
- Presented at several local, state, regional, national and international conferences and meetings
| Rhode Island Office Sprout Building 166 Valley Street Providence, RI 02909 Telephone: 401-421-4004 | New York Office 61-43 186th Street Fresh Meadows, NY 11365 Telephone: 516-273-1961 |
Dr. Imber's CV is available upon request.
2/21/2022
· Education & Schools
By: Dr. Steven Imber
In short, an expert who purports to claim that he (or she) can support the position of any client may be strong on an overindulged sense of confidence, but a bit weak on integrity. During the past several years, I have learned that issues that pertain to educational decision-making that is truly in the best interests of the child are complex, intriguing and deserving of a blend of careful scientific and intuitive analysis
5/16/2017
· Education & Schools
By: Dr. Steven Imber
On March 22 the U.S. Supreme Court issued an 8-0 opinion in the case Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, ruling in favor of the parents of a student with autism spectrum disorder who had charged that the district did not meet the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA. The parents argued that their child did not receive a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) that was mandated by Congress.
7/6/2011
· Psychology
By: Steven Imber
Prior to 1966, the Supreme Court sought to define the Constitution's protection against self-incrimination with regard to juveniles, to the mentally impaired, and to psychological coercion by police (see Gallegos v. Colorado, 1962; Blackburn v. Alabama, 1960; Fikes v. Alabama, 1957; Chambers v. Florida, 1940).
5/18/2011
· Psychology
By: Steven Imber
A parent has the right to an independent educational evaluation at the public expense if the parent disagrees with an evaluation obtained by the public agency.
4/11/2011
· Psychology
By: Steven Imber
An independent educational evaluation (IEE) provides parents with an opportunity to obtain alternative sources of information concerning the present levels of performance of their children.
Construction Expert Witness Michael Panish
Michael Panish
Construction, Door, Gate Expert Witness & Consultant
PO Box 725
Woodland Hills, CA 91365
---------- Available ----------
ALL STATES
USA, International, CAN
phone: 888-902-4272
fax: 818-888-7302
Mike Panish is an expert witness & consultant for most construction trades, specializing in automatic door systems and door sensors, door, door hardware, cabinetry, and architectural millwork. Extensive experience working for plaintiff & defense (Federal & State). Highly credible & solid testimony. Licensed in CA as a General Building Contractor, Electrical Contractor, Door, Lock & Security Equipment Contractor, Cabinet & Millwork Contractor, and Painting & Finish Specialties Contractor. Over 40 years hands-on experience in all construction trades with over 2000 cases since the year 2000. Local to CA & New England. Nationwide Inspection & Testimony in every state and internationally.
Mike Panish is the most retained and the leading expert witness for Automatic Door injuries / Wrongful Death and Door Defects and Injuries. Security issues relating to daycare & healthcare centers. Construction defects, product liability, poor workmanship relating to contractor vs homeowner disputes and contractor fraud.
Areas of Expertise:
- Automatic Door Personal Injury, Wrongful Death Cases
- Door and Door Hardware Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Defects Cases
- Gates (all types including sliding, parking arm gates)
- Cabinetry, Architectural Millwork, Furniture Personal injury, Defects Cases
- Slip, Trip, Fall / Railings / ADA Personal Injury Cases
- General Construction (all trades) Defects Cases, Personal Injury Cases, Wrongful Death
- Premises Liability, Premises Security for Criminal Cases, Elder Abuse Cases, Wrongful Death
- Building Inspections (all types), Site Evaluation, Product Evaluation, Defect Analysis, Poor Workmanship, Costs & Estimates, Plans Analysis, Proper Installation, Claim Analysis
1/5/2016
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
As a construction expert witness, I am often asked about the importance of using safety equipment. I have many years of personal experiences with the proper observance of safety procedures and appropriate safety equipment requirements.
12/11/2015
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
I have been the retained expert witness by both the plaintiff and defendant to determine the causes of a variety of significant injuries that have happened as a result of improper cabinet and millwork installation practices. In most claims, if product abuse or deferred condition was not the reason for the injury, poor installation practices that have omitted required hardware was to blame. Architectural millwork injuries have occurred repeatedly in shopping centers and malls, hotels, hospitals, airports, and offices throughout the country. Casinos and restaurants are also routinely the location of significant cabinetry related failures leading to serious injuries. Many offices and industrial buildings that utilize modular furniture have had employees injured by improper or completely unattached components. In my other articles, improperly attached architectural millwork has been discussed. Heavy mirrors and headwalls have fallen upon hotel guests while they were asleep in bed. Generally, these failures occur due to lack of appropriate fasteners, missed structural connections, or product tampering.
11/2/2015
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
Mechanical fasteners, when properly used as recommended by the manufacturer, almost always assure safe and secure attachment of a fastened product. In commercial and residential applications, injuries resulting from mechanical attachment failures have often been attributed to inappropriate usage of products, improper installation procedures, or the failure of a poorly manufactured fastening product. When a product becomes disconnected from its point of attachment, serious personal injury can result.
10/13/2015
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
This article will discuss plastic laminated products only. Although many other laminated materials are used for residential and commercial applications, plastic laminates are one of the most common products involved in casework claims and personal injuries.
8/31/2015
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
My job as a cabinetry and millwork expert witness is to inspect and evaluate casework, cabinetry, or millwork that may have either failed or may be deficient in some way. Many of the past cases where I have been designated as the cabinetry and millwork expert witness have involved analyzing products that no longer exist because they have either been replaced or destroyed. What is available for review is often in the form of architectural elevations (renderings), photographs of the damaged cabinetry, or shop drawings and samples of the materials that were used. Generally, there is a question as to what entity is responsible for the monetary loss sustained. The usual course of action by attorneys is to sue all parties in the chain of events, from design through installation.
7/21/2015
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
Having recently testified as the door hardware, lock and security expert witness on a very serious elder abuse case involving the rape of a 93 year old resident of a retirement home, I am intimately aware of the potential for physical violence and neglect aimed directly at senior citizens. The following is about a completely different kind of abuse involving our senior population.
6/18/2015
· Security
By: Michael Panish
Rape and patient abuse are more prevalent and common place in daycare and long term skilled nursing facilities than anyone would think possible.
5/19/2015
· Legal Issues
By: Michael Panish
The first two questions that I am often asked by attorneys during deposition or trial testimony are "On what percentage of cases do you work for the Plaintiff?" and "On what percentage of cases do you work for the Defense?"
4/21/2015
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
Most of the misunderstandings pertaining to contractor and homeowner relationships occur as a result of unclear or wrongly interpreted construction contracts. Upon entering into a building contract, the enthusiasm for starting the proposed work often creates a kind of glazing over or dulling of the senses on the part of the homeowner. Many times questionable terms and arrangements for payment scheduling are accepted or unknowingly agreed to as the homeowner's urgent desire to start work overshadows common sense. Often, the lowest priced contractor seduces the homeowner with promises of more value for the money.
3/19/2015
· Construction
Contractor Fraud : Don't Become a Victim Home Renovation Projects - CONTRACTOR FRAUD SERIES (Part 1)
By: Michael Panish
As a Construction Expert Witness, I have been involved in numerous homeowner vs. contractor lawsuits that turned out to be directly created by contractor fraud. In this article, I have combined a few different actual cases, highlighting the various tactics used by dishonest contractors to bait and then hook the homeowner. In all of these cases, the homeowner prevailed.
2/18/2015
· Construction
By: Michael Panish
The need to have increased security to public venues such as airports, schools, religious facilities, day care centers, shopping centers, and government buildings is nothing new. However, it has become apparent that many unexpected assaults and deadly attacks are coming from individuals that have gained a certain level of intimacy with the venues and organizations that they are invading. The attackers are not necessarily strangers, but people we know.
1/16/2015
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
In December of 2012 a gunman broke into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and viciously murdered 20 children and 6 administrators. Adding Sandy Hook Elementary School to a growing list of other tragic school shootings confirms that any educational institution should be considered a viable target for future attacks.
12/10/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
Every good attorney needs to consider the validity of every potential claim. As the most frequently retained door expert witness, working for both Plaintiff and Defense evenly, I have been retained on door injury and wrongful death claims that were not caused by malfunctioning doors or door hardware. As discovery has often shown, people in poor physical or mental condition who are left unattended or unassisted while moving through properly functioning doorways are often the genesis of their own injuries. All commercial venues have the responsibility to maintain their facilities to industry wide standards, seek proper routine maintenance, and provide daily inspections of their door systems. However, it is difficult to provide safe passage to every patron of their facilities when some of those patrons may include persons requiring diligent physical supervision, special assistance walking, or have special needs due to disease, mental incapacity, or other unknown infirmities.
11/4/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
Injuries resulting from panic hardware are more prevalent than you might think. Injuries can be due to lack of maintenance on these devices and/or installation of spurious parts or components.
9/24/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
One of the most common types of expert related calls that I receive pertains to some sort of door injury. Door injuries caused by automatic pedestrian doors, manual doors, or garage doors often lead to serious and potentially life threatening high dollar liability and personal injury lawsuits. My case load as a door expert witness is evenly split between plaintiff and defense. I have written articles, testified, and been consultant on many door injury cases throughout the country and abroad. In addition, my services have been utilized by defense teams representing cross defendants such as door maintenance companies also named in the chain of commerce.
8/22/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
As a door expert, I am called upon many times a year to evaluate garage door injuries. In my professional career as a general contractor and door & hardware contractor, I have installed many different types of garage doors. I have been involved with roll up doors, both for commercial warehouse applications and automotive repair facilities that allow the passage of a motor vehicle. I have installed and serviced life safety/fire drop doors typically seen in hospitals, pharmacies, labs, shopping centers and other commercial venues. I have placed sectional doors in apartment buildings, single family homes and condominiums. My company has custom built many types of garage enclosures that have had special cosmetic concealed purposes for themed attractions. Working on historic buildings has given me the opportunity to work on sliding barn type doors, hinged parting doors and old carriage style swinging doors. I have removed and replaced the older style, overhead vintage single panel pivoting hinged garage door from commercial and residential locations, and have installed a variety of newer and safer products.
7/18/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
The overhead or floor mounted concealed door closer is a very common type of door closer mechanism which is normally unseen and unnoticed. In the majority of installations, these concealed closers are used on aluminum glazed storefront doors, hollow metal stand alone, or structural framed window systems. The concealed door closer design concept was initially engineered as a self-contained product that featured a center pivot allowing a variety of door functions with no exterior arm or visible operating hardware.
6/12/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
During the past several years I have been contacted many times regarding door injury claims related to manual door closers. In response to numerous inquires asking if I have published any manual door closer articles similar to the primers I have done on automatic pedestrian doors, I am offering this article for general information to assist attorneys in determining potential issues relating to manual door closer mechanisms.
5/7/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
We are all used to opening and closing doors on a daily basis. Unless you encounter a problem with the function of your doors, you probably don't give their operation and component make up much thought. I am continually contacted by attorneys seeking my advice on an injury that took place because of an improperly adjusted or malfunctioning door. In this article, I am simply discussing manually operated doors. Nothing fancy or automatic about them, the kind where you grab a lever, push a plate or bang on a bar to enter or leave a room or building. So, if you want to learn to communicate professionally and simply with your door expert or even your building manager, read on.
4/7/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
If you run an active automatic door service company it is not a matter of IF you will be sued . . . it is a matter of WHEN ! What every door service provider can do to proactively protect their business.
2/26/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
Automatic doors are generally grouped into two major categories. Low energy and high energy doors. The difference between the two types of doors pertain to the ways that the doorways operate.
1/23/2014
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
As the retained expert witness on many overhead door injury and wrongful death cases, some of the injuries I have seen include injured or severed fingers and limbs, bodily trauma, and death. Disabling injuries often lead to involved lawsuits due to the combination of jobsite and employer, landlord and tenant contractual agreements, and property owner liability insurance coverage. Knowing who is responsible for maintenance and inspections of these doorways is essential.
12/17/2013
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
In conjunction with many other articles that I have had published pertaining to high energy doors, or what most people think of when they say automatic doors, low energy systems can be equally dangerous and need to be appropriately and properly maintained.
11/11/2013
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
Within the past few months, I have been retained as expert witness to evaluate revolving door injuries in over a dozen different locations nationwide. While I usually see an even distribution of sliding door, swinging door, and revolving door injury cases, the revolving door injuries currently seem to be the most prevalent. What is particularly interesting is that no two of my recent cases were created by the same problem.
10/14/2013
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
I have been involved in many automatic door cases during the past few years working for both plaintiff and defense. As discussed in one of my previous articles (The Ins and Outs of Automatic Door Operation), automatic doors are highly complex pieces of equipment that require daily attention. Most injuries occur when some component of the automatic door system malfunctions.
9/23/2013
· Elevators - Escalator - Automatic Doors
By: Michael Panish
A basic primer in how they work, what to look for, and how to analyze defects vs. deferred maintenance. Expert door contractor, Michael Panish, takes you through the basics for your case. A basic primer about Automatic Door functions.
Architect Expert Randall Atlas
Dr. Randy Atlas, FAIA, CPP
President
333 Las Olas Way Suite 1605
Ft. Lauderdale FL
33301
USA
phone: (305) 332-6588
Dr. Randy Atlas AIA , CPP is a Registered Architect, NCARB certified, and he practices Criminal Justice Architecture and Environmental Security Design. Atlas is a certified protection professional (CPP) with the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS), and is an appointed member of the ASIS Security Architecture and Engineering Committee. Atlas has his doctorate in criminology and a masters of architecture. Dr Atlas is a Fellow member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Dr. Atlas has taught CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design) and criminal justice courses at Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, and the University of Miami, Keiser University, and he is a trainer with the National Crime Prevention Institute at the University of Louisville. Dr. Atlas has been a technical Assistance consultant with the National Institute of Justice, National Institute of Corrections, and the Florida Department of Corrections and U.S. HUD Drug Elimination CPTED Program.
He has conducted ADA accessibility compliance audits for private and public sector clients, and served as an expert witness on over 200 premises liability lawsuits.
Dr. Atlas has been a speaker and trainer at security conferences from New Delhi, India to Seattle, Washington and has written over 200 articles in various publications on security, safety, and counter terrorism issues.
9/26/2011
· Security
Creating safe schools is the responsibility of the entire community where a school or school system resides.
7/20/2011
· Security
BETWEEN LATE 2009 AND MARCH OF THIS YEAR, a national baked goods chain with franchises in Broward County, Florida, experienced a series of nighttime burglaries that resulted in thousands of dollars in stolen cash and damaged property.
5/31/2011
· Security
When it comes to the issue of safety in schools, it is important to remember that long before the students walk the halls, a design team creates the building and its grounds, envisioning the subsequent relationships with its occupants.
3/15/2011
· Security
Last June, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith was forcibly abducted from the public parking lot of an Overland Park, Kansas, Target store.
2/3/2011
· Security
The "form follows function" tenet of 20th century architecture holds that the specific functional requirements of a building should determine design criteria.
Randall A. Atlas, PhD, AIA, CPP
This is the first and only book of its kind dedicated to the contributions and importance of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). It will educate the reader and design professional on the necessity of CPTED in reducing risks, threats, and vulnerabilities of and to our built environment post-9/11…
The American Institute of Architects
This important reference from the American Institute of Architects presents a useful resource of fundamental, up-to-date information for security planning in both new and existing facilities.
Transportation Traffic Engineering Expert Witness Carl Berkowitz
239 Lands End Court
Moriches NY
11955
USA
phone: 631-878-7419
Carl Berkowitz, PE, Ph.D., AICP, is a Transportation and Traffic Engineering expert with almost 50 years of expertise. He's held various managerial and administrative positions in the transportation industry, government, private, and academic sectors.
Dr. Berkowitz has extensive multi-modal experience in planning, design, engineering, safety, security, construction, maintenance, operations, and management. He has written and edited numerous reports, studies, articles, and columns for major publications, journals, newspapers and scholarly periodicals.
Background Experience:
- Transportation and Traffic Engineering Consultant, 1988 - Present
- New York City Department of Transportation, New York, 1970 – 88
- New York State Office of Planning Coordination, New York, 1967 - 70
- New York State Department of Transportation, Babylon, NY, 1963 - 67
- New York City Transit Authority, New York, 1962 - 63
Litigation Support - Dr. Berkowitz has served as a litigation consultant since 1997. He has the background and experience to make him ideally suited to contribute important information at every stage in the litigation process. Dr. Berkowitz is able to explain complex issues in layman terms, suggest strategies, investigate and uncover facts, perform literature reviews, research, and prepare safety evaluations. He has been deposed / testified over 50 times in the last 5 years.
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Vocational Rehabilitation Expert Witness Christopher Lowery
Christopher A. Lowery, DHSc, CLCP
Clinical Health & Rehabilitation Consultant
2500 E. T C Jester Blvd., Ste. 216 Houston, Texas 77008
3355 Lenox Road, Suite 750 Atlanta, GA 30326
USA, International
phone: 1-888-340-1116
fax: 1-877-700-5058
Dr. Christopher A. Lowery, DHSc, CLCP is an international Clinical Health & Rehabilitation Consultant with a special interest in global health initiatives. He is board-certified as a life care planner practitioner specializing in health promotion and prevention through the use of holistic evidence-based approaches using a biopsychosocial health consultation model for all patients/clients that suffers from associated disabilities and health impairments.
Since 2002, Dr. Lowery passion has been to educate, empower, and provide hope to individuals with catastrophic health impairments. He focuses on educating and counseling patients/clients on improving their quality of life, addressing social, cultural, and behavioral barriers across diverse populations impacted by poor healthcare conditions.
He currently holds the following degrees: Bachelor of Science in rehabilitation studies from University of North Texas (07), Master of Arts in human and health administration services from University of Oklahoma (10), Post-Specialty Certificate in life care planning from Capital University Law School (12), Post-Master's Certificate in rehabilitation counseling from University of Arkansas at Little Rock (14), and Doctor of Health Science in global health from Nova Southeastern University (16).
Dr. Lowery holds a board-certification in life care planning as a Certified Life Care Planner (CLCP) from the International Commission on Health Care Certification (ICHCC), which is accredited and recognized by the American National Standards Institute National Accreditation Board (ANAB). This prestigious certification attests to his qualifications and competence in the health care delivery systems. ANAB’s accreditation ensures that the certification process meets rigorous international standards, confirming his aptitude and expertise for his role as a practitioner.
**If you have a case that needs Dr. Lowery expertise, please feel free to give his office a call for a free consultation.
Note: Please see below or website for more areas of expertise .
Areas of Expertise:
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Hotel and Restaurant Operations Expert Witness Gary Coburn
Gary R. Coburn
San Juan Capistrano CA
92675
USA
phone: gary@rci-consulting.com
Gary R. Coburn is an award-winning Restaurant Executive with 40 years of experience creating, opening, running, and advising hundreds of full service restaurants, limited service, quick-service, bars and nightclubs. Additional expertise in restaurant franchising and commercial kitchen design/build from remodels to ground up including conceptual development, viability and business interruption.
With over four decades in the industry, Mr. Coburn has held positions as VP of National Accounts and Design Build for the largest commercial kitchen and distribution company in the country to, Director of Operations, President, COO, Executive Director of Food Services and owner operator. His management experience has included supervising more than 2,000 employees, including 170 managers, along with overseeing consulting assignments for numerous companies.
Clients Include: Joe's Crab Shack, Cask ‘n Cleaver, Lord Charlie’s, El Gato Gordo, Pizza Pronto, Safari Bar Restaurant, Shark Club, Bull Dog Grill, Stronghouse, Pangea, The Ballroom, Juarez Grill, Dickerson’s Club 29, Yucatan Liquor Stand, Zepp’s Atomic Tex Mex, Cabo Grill, Angel Stadium, In Cahoots, The Ball Room, Slick Willie’s, Rodeo, Jake’s, Bobs on the Bay, Crabby Bob’s Seafood, PizzaRev, Honolulu Harry’s, Lahaina Mai Tai Lounge, Canyon Grill, Campagnia, Huey’s Grill & Brewery, Gladstone’s Long Beach, Pro’s Ranch Markets, Lily's Doughnuts & Pops
Litigation Support - Mr. Coburn has served as an expert witness in numerous restaurant-related cases. His services are available to attorneys for plaintiff and defense and include site inspection, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony as needed.
Areas of Expertise:
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Recent cases retained by Plaintiff:
- Guest incident regarding standard of care including safety, protocols / procedures, adequate warnings, and related issues
- Safety and security practices for proprietors regarding foreseeability of harm, likelihood of injury, notice and reasonable intervention
- Loss of income, conceptual and goodwill impact based on providing adequate parking
Recent cases retained by Defendant:
- Loss of income and the feasibility of the concept and the viability of opening the restaurant
- Slip and fall and the ensuring safety of its patrons and duty to use reasonable care in keeping premises reasonably safe
- Maintenance, industry standards of furniture handling and procurement, foreseeability of harm, and likelihood of injury from lack of procedures
Special Education Expert Witness Joseph Schwartzberg
1831 Goldenrod Lane
Vista CA
92081
USA
phone: 760-705-0106
Dr. Joseph S. Schwartzberg, is an Educational Consultant / Expert Witness who provides consultation and testimony on cases involving students with disabilities and School safety matters.. Dr. Schwartzberg was responsible for developing and administering legally compliant special education and general programs for 35 school districts in NY before doing likewise for the 14 districts of North San Diego County. For 13 years, he served as the Senior Director of the North Coastal Consortium for Special Education for the San Diego County Office of Education.
Litigation Support - Dr. Schwartzberg has provided expert witness services to counsel representing both plaintiff and defense in state,federal as well as family court.
Areas of Expertise:
- IDEA
- School Safety
- ADA
- Standards of Care
- Other Agency Responsibilities
- Non-public Schools
- Appropriate Programming for Students with Disabilities
Certification / Credentials:
- School Administrator and Supervisor (SAS)
- School District Administrator (SDA)
- Professional Clear Administrative Services Credential
- Professional Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential : Health Science
- Learning Disabilities, Emotionally Handicapped, General Special Education
- Nursery, Kindergarten, Grades 1-6
- Health and special classes of the orthopedically and similarly handicapped
- Teacher of children with special learning handicaps
Passenger Transportation Expert Ned Einstein
Ned Einstein
President
41 Hickory Hill Drive
Warwick NY
10990
USA
phone: 212-766-1121 (NY) or 818-988-4586 (LA)
fax: 212-766-1122
Areas of Expertise: Accident analysis, testimony and mediation in vehicle and pedestrian accidents involving transit, paratransit, schoolbus, motorcoach, special education, non-emergency medical transportation, taxi, shuttle, child transport systems and services; slips and falls; crossing, boarding and alighting; wheelchairs; seatbelts; ADA and accessibility; passenger safety, security and sexual abuse; vehicle design, specification, crashworthiness, quality assurance and product liability; industry standards and practices; driver training and vehicle operation; management, monitoring, supervision and enforcement; maintenance; NHTSA, FTA, FMCSA and USDOT regulations; vehicle testing and certification; contract negotiation and compliance; risk management; planning and system design.
The Firm: Transportation Alternatives is a passenger transportation and automotive consortium engaged in consulting and forensic accident investigation and analysis (more than 600 cases). Specializes in elderly, disabled, schoolchildren.
Education: MURP (Urban and Regional Planning): George Washington University, 1975 BA, English Literature: Rutgers University, 1969
Professional Experience:
- President, Transportation Alternatives (1980 to present). Consulted to USDOT, transit agencies, private contractors, social service agencies, municipalities and school districts. Designed several major transportation systems
- Chairman/General Manager, PTS Transportation (1982-1992). Directed operations of a 70-vehicle paratransit system for physically and developmentally disabled individuals and a non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) service
- President, TAM-USA (1989-1995). Formed and directed a U.S.-Slovene joint venture company which coordinated the design, testing, certification and marketing of a European-manufactured school bus and motorcoach.
Appointments and Memberships:
- American Public Transportation Association
- National Association of Pupil Transportation
- United Motorcoach Association
- American Bus Association
- Community Transportation Association of America
- Association Internationale pour la Sécurité du Transport des Jeunes
- National School Transportation Conference (1995, 2000, 2005)
- Committee on School Transportation Safety, National Academy of Sciences
- Bus Industry Safety Committee (ABA)
- Access Committee (APTA)
12/20/2023
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
America’s worst transportation problems may be recent. But they had their roots in a century of serious mistakes, even if, in fairness, many were not foreseeable nearly that long ago. Compared to many countries with a fraction of our resources, America made no efforts to decrease traffic levels by creating new major cities – like Brasilia and Tel Aviv (the latter of which had recently been its nation’s capital; the former still is).
10/25/2023
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that every wheelchair securement position have some type of floor hardware – and even specifies its longitudinal and lateral spacing (49 CFR 38.23(d)(2). It also requires that every position contain three sets of tie-downs – although the clear, irrefutable industry standard is four.
5/11/2023
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
This installment explains how the two major forms of wheelchair transportation were fragmented by oversight failures in the Johnson Administration. Not only did this fragmentation evolve into extraordinary levels of corruption, but the consolidation of these two types of programs was rarely, if ever, effected.
3/21/2022
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In this article, I am merely explaining the consequences of cabinet and administrator choices being made in the passenger and freight transportation fields, and commenting on the overall challenges of running the labyrinth of variation and complexity which USDOT is.
12/1/2021
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
The “Bad Regulations” series noted above identified a litany of institutional and industry-wide failures to stop the incursion of TNC’s from gutting the taxicab industry. Alongside the successful decimation of that sector, and the near-collapse of tour and charter service caused by the COVID-19 (and our failures to mitigate it), few noticed that fixed route transit ridership had declined by roughly 10 percent during the two years preceding COVID-19.
9/17/2021
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As we struggle to bounce back, limited stimulus funds notwithstanding, it would help to know what we are in for. Reducing bloated public sector transportation costs are likely a part of that future. In response, private contracting should explode. But this does not mean the operating environment will be rosy, or even coherent.
7/18/2021
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In many cases, the negligence of lead agencies and brokers are the principal proximate causes of an incident; in some cases, it comprises the sole proximate causes. For this reason, understanding the dynamics among these three entities – private operating companies, lead agencies and brokers - is the key to
5/20/2021
· Accident Prevention & Safety
By: Ned Einstein
The most common crossing accidents are simple vehicle-pedestrian accidents where a car, SUV or pickup truck strikes a pedestrian. Because impact forces closely reflect the inverse of the square of the masses, no pedestrian is a remote match for even the slightest automobile traveling at a crawl. As a simple illustration, a 100-lb. pedestrian colliding with a 2000-lb. car will not experience twenty time the impact forces that the vehicle does.
4/12/2021
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
For decades, motorcoach providers have provided commuter-express service, under contract, to transit agencies (and, occasionally, to municipalities, counties or regions which do not have formal transit agencies). Particularly in the past 20 years, this role has expanded:
2/13/2021
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Amtrak, the heavily-subsidized enemy of the motorcoach industry, is now outdoing its airline industry colleagues. But as a quasi-government monopoly, the taxpayers will effectively cover the damages if problems develop. That Amtrak may not even belong in most parts of the country is …
1/9/2021
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As an expert witness (see transalt.com), I have found it surprising that the vast majority of incidents and accidents occur when the vehicle is not even moving. One fourth of the more than 600 cases I’ve done involved simply getting on and off the vehicle.
11/11/2020
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In two recent articles for National Bus Trader, I described how to put motorcoaches back on the road in both unusual and traditional roles. Here, I will outline some ideas for getting fixed route transit buses and passenger trains back to work, consistent with safety for both drivers and passengers.
9/16/2020
· Education & Schools
By: Ned Einstein
Because of social distancing, classrooms and schoolbuses can only be filled to one-fourth of their capacities. This constraint alone requires that a broad range of dramatic changes be made in order for our children to return to physical school without placing out entire population at greater risk than we already are.
8/5/2020
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Hopes, dreams, truth, lies, prayers and politics aside, one of the burning industry questions is: How do we get on the road again? In Part 1 of this series, I outlined a number of important roles motorcoaches could and should have played immediately when the outbreak began. Performance of these roles would have helped the country cope with the virus. It would have helped the industry, its businesses and its drivers survive it. It would have negated the related interruption in production, marketing, sales and maintenance of vehicles in support of this continuity.
5/22/2020
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
The consequences of robots provide a stark contrast to the glistening, beautifully designed, brilliantly engineered, clean fuel-burning, energy-efficient vehicles displayed on the pages of NATIONAL BUS TRADER and other trade magazines. They are often creatively-deployed in well-marketed services, often optimizing both safety and comfort instead of trading one for the other
4/16/2020
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
I would normally begin a series by exploring the origin of the problems. These would have included four decades of failure in multiple sectors of public transportation. Among its fellow modes, the motorcoach industry created the fewest of these failures. But the motorcoach industry has been limited in its capabilities...
2/4/2020
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
With these dynamics, defensive driving is not a mere skill. It is a necessity. In their depositions, few professional drivers can identify even a handful of defensive driving principles...Robots have advantages beyond the elimination of jobs. Robots have no reaction time. They experience no fatigue. Disciplines like driver assignment cease to exist.
12/11/2019
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
We are only a few years away from the complete consolidation of fixed route transportation (transit, motorcoach and schoolbus) and the complete consolidation of demand-responsive transportation (paratransit, taxi, limousine, NEMT and special education). This installment will lay the groundwork by comparing modern travel to travel 30 years ago. The opportunities for motorcoach operators to benefit from these changes are once-in-a-lifetime.
10/5/2019
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
This series of installments, which shall appear periodically, will examine some likely reactions to the robots by drivers.
2/27/2019
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Early in my 42 years working in the public transportation field, I learned that the industry's Achilles Heel is negligent monitoring. Almost no one knows how to do this effectively. Few agencies or companies do this at all. Most of their officials do not care. So the industry is rife with crossing accidents, negligent retention, wheelchair tipovers and passenger molestation, among other common accident and incident scenarios.
2/13/2019
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In Part One of this short series, we explored the rudiments of reaction time and braking distance. The arithmetic for understanding both concepts was learned in the third grade (multiplication), fourth grade (long division), seventh grade (fractions) and eleventh grade (drivers' education).
1/14/2019
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Thankfully, mowing down pedestrians in a crosswalk is not yet commonplace. But it is also not rare. This incident scenario is most common to transit buses making left turns (see "The Danger Deterrent," NATIONAL BUS TRADER, April 2016) But it happens occasionally with almost every transportation mode. Yet the defenses almost always cited by the drivers are no match for someone with a high school diploma.
12/24/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
The final installment of this series examines the socio-economic dynamics and choices which led to the increasing commission of safety compromises by America’s public transportation services.
11/9/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As with most things, the ADA requirement to make all new motorcoaches purchased after 2001 wheelchair-accessible, and the 2015 ruling to install three-point occupant restraint systems, introduced an entirely new spectrum of safety, liability and social concerns to the motorcoach industry. But a couple of responses to these requirements, particularly by one OEM and one supplier, have opened up a whole new set of opportunities for savvy motorcoach operators.
9/28/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
An industry outsider (say, a juror) might consider the variation in passenger assistance within the public transportation industry alarming. Exploring a single theme like boarding and alighting illustrates the extremes
9/5/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
It might seem obvious that a bus driver would know how to properly turn a vehicle with a long wheelbase. Yet it is surprising how many are not taught to. More interesting, bus drivers often do not have the time to.
8/16/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Given the mass of a bus or motorcoach, the carnage a moving bus or coach can inflict on a pedestrian is not surprising. Yet readers may be surprised by the carnage such a vehicle can cause when it is not moving - or just beginning to move or come to a stop.
7/23/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
For each route in each direction, transit stops are almost always located on one side of an intersection, not both. Stops just before the intersection are referred to as 'near-side' stops. Those just after the intersection are referred to as 'far-side' stops.
6/7/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Other than airport-to-parking lot shuttles, and an occasional tour or charter trip, all public transportation services pickup and discharge their passengers at the side of a roadway. When it is available, they pickup and discharge them from or onto a curb, sidewalk, platform or other raised surface.
5/17/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
For many passengers, the 14-inch drop from the bottom step of a high-floor transit bus or motorcoach is challenging. In transit service, drivers do not assist or even spot boarding or alighting passengers. While motorcoach drivers typically assist or spot boarding or alighting passengers at the front door, the drivers of motorcoaches deployed in commuter/express service (provided by transit agencies or companies under contract to them) do not. Nor do scheduled service drivers do so consistently, especially at intermediate stops.
4/12/2018
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In Part 1 of this three-installment series, I characterized the development of MCI's new ramp-equipped accessible motorcoach (the MCI D45 CRT LE) as a "paradigm shift." While I will expand on why this is so in the third and last installment next month, this installment will overview the most unique features of this remarkable vehicle -- a vehicle whose ultimate potential I feel has not yet been realized.
3/21/2018
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
As an urban planner by background, there are certain clichés I have grown to loath. Among my least favorite is the phrase 'paradigm shift.' This is because few things in the transportation field ever comprise a paradigm shift. Among the true exceptions were the 45-foot-long coach, the proliferation of double-deckers, Megabus pricing, and the advances in super-clean diesel engines. Autonomous coaches seem decades away (even while exploding on the scene in Europe). Otherwise, nothing else close to a paradigm shift in this traditional industry comes to mind.
2/22/2018
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
Speeding would seem like the most obvious safety compromise. Speeding would seem like the most natural remedy to a schedule too tight, and the most obvious way to pick up more passengers, increase system capacity and maximize revenue: Just drive faster.
1/31/2018
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
Among all the safety compromises pandemic to the public transportation industry, wheelchair tipovers are, by far, the least common to the motorcoach sector compared to other services which deploy accessible vehicles. Of course, this is largely because so few wheelchair users travel by motorcoach.
10/16/2017
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
In Part 1 of this series, I introduced the notion that roughly half of all public transportation-related incidents are the result of a deliberate trade-off of passenger safety for some system or owner's benefit. The most common benefit is the service provider's operating a schedule that is too tight.
9/28/2017
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
This new National Bus Trader piece is the first installment of likely a year-long series about types of incidents that result from trade-offs of safety for other benefits -- adherence to unrealistically-tight schedules (or drivers running behind schedule) being the principal culprit. Frankly, of the more than 600 public transportation-related lawsuits in which I have served as an expert witness, roughly half of all incidents see to be the result of some deliberate safety compromise.
9/12/2017
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
The past eight installments of this series covered a lot of ground -- some technical, but mostly socio-economic and conceptual. But in the debate over the pros and cons of human versus robotic drivers, is it not possible to have the wisdom to take the best of both worlds? In early articles I acknowledged some of the advantages of Highly-Automated Vehicles (HAVs), including:
8/24/2017
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
What is interesting, and the focus of this installment, is the glaring disparity between the magnitude of information available about a vehicle or driver's performance and the general disinterest in examining it. This disparity is not a technological problem. It is largely an institutional and attitudinal problem. Or one might characterize it as a cultural problem. Or a values problem in a money-oriented society. Nevertheless, it raises an important point about driverless vehicles: While a vehicle's brain may contribute to and/or improve safety (fewer accidents and incidents) and performance (e.g., better mileage, less pollution), this brain's extraordinary analytical capabilities may be pointless because no non-robot is likely to ever examine the data.
7/24/2017
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
The previous six National Bus Trader articles on this subject stabbed at some highlights and low-lights within the extraordinary spectrum of socio-economic, institutional and other issues encompassed by our transition from humanoid-driven to robotic vehicles. At this point, I thought it might be helpful to take a quick glance at some of the hardware that serves as the robots' mechanical fixtures, apart from the electronics and the digitalia: Cameras and sensors. These components were employed in "transitional" or "steppingstone" efforts along the path to truly driverless vehicles. So I feel it is worth a look at how these technologies were used and abused at this earlier stage of HAV (highly-automated vehicle) development. Should the reader wish to view the math in the robots' brains, I recommend Multiple View Geometry in Computer Vision by Richard Hartley and Andrew Zisserman. The bible for artificial intelligence. Way over my head. If also over yours, no apologies necessary.
7/14/2017
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
When an asteroid strikes a planet, things tend to change quickly. Most other changes occur gradually, even while a small handful are occasionally more significant. These latter changes are sometimes referred to as "paradigm shifts," largely because they affect so many things around them, and cause such dramatic changes in the things they affect directly.
6/22/2017
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Industry insiders, including government officials, cite an interesting analogy as a justification for their initial jump into the regulation of driverless vehicles that was first promulgated on September 20, 2016. The point made is that, had current regulations been in effect when the "Model T" hit the streets, we would have experienced far fewer collisions.
5/23/2017
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As Part 2 of this series hopefully demonstrated there is much to learn about what lies ahead in the motorcoach world from the experiences of modes deploying smaller vehicles. This installment provides a preview of the likely emergence of "highly-automated vehicles," or HAVs, in the world of large vehicles: School bus, transit and motorcoach service.
3/28/2017
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In a monthly magazine, it is almost impossible to keep up changes that are racing along This past September, 2015, small fleets of Volvos and Ford Fusions were released into the general traffic stream in Pittsburgh, and driverless Anheuser-Busch trucks began delivering Budweiser and Bud Light. The Netherlands and Finland have been deploying driverless motorcoaches for months now. And we already have a few similar services operating in the U.S.
2/13/2017
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In Part 1 of this series, I identified the enormous range of benefits that would likely accompany even the first wave of autonomous buses, coaches, trucks and delivery vehicles. And I identified a handful of dysfunctional consequences, the most serious of which is a Tsunami of driver unemployment. Lest anyone doubt these inevitabilities, he or she might consider consulting the seven-installment series in National Bus Trader titled "Bad Regulations and Worse Responses" (June 2014 through January 2015).
12/28/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
National Bus Trader has always been a leader in its selection and treatment of topics related to technology and innovation. So the decision to craft a lengthy article about NBT Editor Larry Plachno's experiences "behind-the-wheel" of a motorcoach-of-the-future at a "ZF Ride & Drive" event in Aachen, Germany (NBT, September, 2016) should not have been a surprise. Nor should it come as a surprise that safety, liability and other issues related to this technology will be explored as well.
8/19/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
The notion of "screening" driver-candidates for Sleep Apnea screening is not merely unsupportable, it is a delusion. In 2011, 517 truck drivers in Australia were tested for Obstructive Sleep Apnea ("Assessing Sleepiness and Sleep Disorder in Truck Drivers" in SLEEP, 2011). According to an anonymous self-evaluation questionnaire (a "multivariable apnea prediction index, based on self-report measures"), only 12% felt they had it, while roughly 4.4% had tested positive for it. Yet when all of them were tested, 41% more of them had this condition. The testing also found that a full 50% of the study participants were obese, and 49% of them smoked cigarettes. Neither of these parameters are included among the handful of criteria currently employed by either the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's or Federal Railway Administration's "recommended" screening exercise -- although, In fairness, the size-17 male neck (or size 16 female neck) serves as a proxy for obesity. At the same time, as noted below, it also captures plenty of "false positives."
6/29/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Like most fields, public transportation is swollen with studies, both in the U.S. and abroad. Yet some of the most fascinating things seem to be never studied, or rarely studied.
5/23/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
This final installment of this series provides the rewards for reading the first six: Starting-point ideas about things the motorcoach industry can do defend its density against intrusion from Transportation Network Companies (like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar), which have already begun plunging into the charter and tour sectors, mostly with medium-sized, body-on-chassis vehicles. It also includes things that would help increase profits and create new service opportunities - and compete with new, legitimate players penetrating the market.
4/13/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As NATIONAL BUS TRADER readers following this series have noted, our judicial system seems to be "running the table" with TNC-related issues. The $220,000,000 settlement of a case against FEDEX effectively eliminated the notion of an "independent contractor" in its six states. And the California courts are soon likely to boot out Uber. The FEDEX case in the U.S. Court's 10th Circuit effectively rippled a TNC's ability to deprive its drivers of a regular employee's costly array of fringe benefits. This settlement is likely to soon play out in the other nine "Circuit" encompassing the other 44 states. And if Uber is booted out of California altogether, on top of the FEDEX settlement, the TNC threat will be diminished significantly.
3/11/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Practically beginning my public transportation career as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Transportation, I learned to hate "Wash-Speak." Government agencies do not compound things; they exacerbate them. They use nothing, but utilize everything. They never start anything, yet implement everything. And much-ado-about nothing is usually referred to as a paradigm shift.
2/25/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Well, by now, the "Cat's Out of the Bag" about transportation network companies (TNCs). For this, we owe our thanks to National Bus Trader, Limo, Charter and Tours Magazine (especially) and the United Motorcoach Association. The August 15, 2015 issue of the UMA-sponsored Bus & Motorcoach News contained two articles about these previously-unfettered, robot-controlled beasts.
2/3/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
These past five years, practically unnoticed until this last one, have witnessed the most radical change in public transportation since the introduction of scheduling software in the Early 90s: The invasion of traditional, analog services wallowing in their nostalgia by hyper- [or uber]-digital counterparts big on access, low on some concerns, and flying beneath virtually every City's and State's regulatory radar.
1/6/2016
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Mitchell Rouse! In the 1980s, a strapping, 6'4"-inch-tall visionary who had inherited a 50-vehicle taxicab company and, within a few years, expanded it into a 350-vehicle leviathan, along with eight small paratransit operations. With a heavily-computerized operation a decade before Windows took over the World, his dispatch office still answered every call with a live Earthling. Wilmington/Checker Cab was all about decency, respect and efficiency. And at a time when most of Los Angeles County was beginning to deteriorate rapidly into lines, menus, incompetence and traffic. Yet, as a brilliant manager with an expanding corporate mentality, Rouse was also a rabid supporter of Unionism, and embraced his Teamster's affiliation with pride.
12/15/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Like every mode of public transportation, and for almost every aspect of our society, the motorcoach industry has, over the decades, been affected significantly by regulations. Some of these experiences were challenging yet produced dramatic results that, among other benefits, have saved us money. One terrific example is that modern motorcoaches dump perhaps one percent of the particulates into our environment than they did a mere two decades ago. Here, the regulations, though challenging, were at least realistic. But our industries' (and other bus modes') responses to it - effectively our engine manufacturers - were far more important than the regulations: Their responses were magnificent.
11/18/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
The explosion of digital technology has triggered increases in vehicle costs, purged small and medium-sized companies from the transportation landscape, and contributed to a nationwide shortage of qualified drivers. But it has taken its greatest toll on management, where supervisors with a genuine understanding of transportation are gradually being replaced by armies of "templeteers."
11/2/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In the last installment of National Bus Trader, "Fatigue Monitoring Technology" presented an overview of the approaches and devices in development, and available, to prevent and detect driver fatigue. But unlike prevention technologies, fatigue detection devices raise a unique question: What happens when they work?!
9/30/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Little in public transportation is as challenging as driving load upon load of wheelchair occupants, with unique needs (and often unique chairs), in all directions, with last-minute one-of-a-kind trips dispatched into tight schedules created days, or even weeks, in advance. Yet this is precisely what paratransit drivers do - hour after hour, day after day.
8/14/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
With panoramic/wraparound windshields lying against the front plane, sun visors, tinted windshields, crossover and parabolic mirror systems, ergonomic driver compartments with tilting/telescopic steering columns and pneumatically-adjustable seats, video surveillance cameras and motion detection sensors - much less corrective lenses, sunglasses, annual vision examinations, and continual improvements in headlamps - one would think that bus drivers could see and react to large objects appearing directly in front of their vehicles. But, as many jurors learn, one would be wrong.
7/8/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Comparing their relative safety to that of other vehicles, a number of motorcoach features come immediately to mind: Mass, monocoque construction pneumatic suspension, and fully-padded, forward-facing seats. Yet incidents like these still occur:
6/12/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
No, this is not the name of a case. It refers to a dangerous conflict coursing through the bus and motorcoach industries - a conflict that we cannot afford to let exist.
5/13/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
The previous article in this series emphasized the importance of transportation professionals selecting bus stops instead of students or their parents doing so. Regardless, while plenty of tools are available to help, the critical tool for evaluating and approving safe bus stops is a live Earthling.
4/14/2015
· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction
By: Ned Einstein
In the last installment (STN, Jun, 2007), I stressed the importance of distinguishing between an actual bus stop and the waiting area across the street from it in terms of safety. But the selection of the stop and waiting area also involves concerns for student security. Sometimes, there are trade-offs that must be made. These trade-off are often complex and subtle. But they must be made correctly.
3/6/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Except in rural areas with vast distances between intersections, a bus stop can reasonably be placed in one of three positions:
1/26/2015
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In those rare instances where the safety of transportation modes can be compared statistically, bus riders fare several decimal points better than bicycle riders. The risks associated with motorcycles are "off the charts." The Figure below illustrates these comparisons for "home-to-school" trips - trips that comprise 15 percent of all transit trips and 96 percent of all schoolbus trips.
12/17/2014
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Every responsible society has mechanisms to hold its citizens, and their organizations, accountable for their actions. With respect to safety, our society effects this goal through the enactment and enforcement of statutes and regulations, and through the process of civil litigation. As with most rules and most societies, many of our transportation organizations have discovered loopholes. Employing these loopholes, they have effectively reduced their liability exposure at the cost of compromising safety.
11/11/2014
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Unlike those of many transit systems, schoolbus stops are not always identified with signage - at either the precise position of the stop or signage indicating that a schoolbus stop is approaching (the black glyph on yellow background). Rarely is the stop zone itself marked (for example, by red-lining the curb). In particular, the failure to mark the stop's precise positioning can be problematic - and occasionally dangerous.
10/2/2014
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As pressure from the unknowing continues to mount, rumors have it that the U.S. motorcoach industry is slowly inching toward the installation of seatbelts. That we are doing so by skipping the decades of seat compartmentalization that has helped fend off most seatbelt advocates in the schoolbus industry is only more unfortunate since existing motorcoach seats lend themselves to a far more evolved form of compartmentalization than the "incomplete compartmentalization" (in NHTSA's own words) of their yellow body-on-chassis cousins.
8/27/2014
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Question: What is the difference between a poorly-selected and -designed bus stop and a land mine? Answer: Very little. When you step on either of them, your ankles, knees and hips are likely to explode. The genuine difference is that the carnage from land mines is intentional, whereas that of poorly-selected and -designed bus stops usually reflects incompetence and, often, indifference.
7/23/2014
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As it affects liability, an operating agency's status as a "common carrier" has an enormous impact not only on determining liability itself, but depending on legal constructs in various states, can also affect considerations like immunity and/or the assessment of punitive damages - often barriers to the assessment of damages afforded to public agencies. So except for motorcoaches deployed in commuter/express service under contract to public transit agencies, these latter considerations rarely affect motorcoach operations in the courtroom.
6/13/2014
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
In rural areas, children spaced far apart were once transported to school by horse and wagon. After the first day of school, the horses learned the routes and simply repeated them day after day, eliminating the need for drivers. The vehicles were cheap, and the engines ran effectively on oats. As our nation changed, pupil transportation's development reflected our increasing urbanization and, later, suburbanization. These developments included a new phenomenon known as traffic. As a safety matter, the need for pupil transportation grew to reflect a child's inability to cross streets or negotiate intersections, as verified by studies like the 1968 Swedish study "Children in Traffic." In simple terms, children below age 13, and particularly below age 10, do not possess the physical, mental and emotional skills necessary to cross streets and intersections.
5/16/2014
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
At the rudimentary level at which most crossing procedures are executed, schoolbus drivers are supposed to "direct" the students across the roadway when they are certain that either the traffic has been stopped in both directions or it is so distant (if even visible) that the students could easily complete their crossing before any oncoming vehicles reach the bus. The bus would obviously have its red flashers and stop arm engaged as a "fail safe."
4/10/2014
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
Drummed into my head as a schoolchild was the mantra, "Cross at the Green, Not In Between." This slogan still provides the basis for Today's thinking about following the pedestrian path to and from school or a student's bus stop. When last year, a study of 7,000 pedestrian accidents in New York City over a four-year period was released, its findings turned this century-old cliché on its head. The implications for the pupil transportation industry are dramatic, and should awaken all of us to a new reality that may save hundreds if not thousands of lives a year, since most vehicle-pedestrian accidents happen to students walking or cycling to school, as well most of those traveling by schoolbus who are struck when crossing by third-party vehicles.
3/4/2014
· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction
By: Ned Einstein
For those readers who remember Jayne Mansfield, or even know who she was, this is not a story about her Hollywood exploits or bedroom acrobatics. It is a story about a common type of accident - a rear-ender involving an automobile striking a truck or bus - often referred to, in accident reconstruction circles, as "the Jayne Mansfield syndrome."
1/31/2014
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
I have often written about the impacts of overly-tight schedules as the primary causative factor in incidents - in fact, the underlying cause of perhaps half of them. Because speeding is one of the "cures" to this problem, one of its characteristics is the failure to slow down when the roadway surface is not, as jazz musicians say, "melody." One of the most common scenarios is to cruise over speed bumps and speed humps. Another is to fail to slow over rugged terrain, particularly potholes and the often dysfunctional patches that sloppy road crews create to "repair" them.
12/30/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
For decades, multiple sources cited the commonly-accepted statistic that only an estimated four percent of all individuals possessed a medical condition known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA is largely the result of certain physical characteristics and lifestyle habits that reduce the flow of oxygen into one's lungs while asleep. These characteristics result in lowered blood oxygen levels throughout one's normal night's sleep, and lower the quality of that sleep such that the individual is fatigued through much of the day.
11/7/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Supply and Demand: When it comes down to it, the ultimate dynamics of survival in life on Earth. More poetically, 70's pop artist icon James Taylor crooned, "You provide the satisfy, and I'll provide the need." So here we go on another jaunt to expand the scenarios for motorcoach usage. However, along the road, we are actually inventing a brand new mode - not that no one has necessarily tried this particular one before.
10/11/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As with every installment in this series of articles, this particular model or vision is highly unusual, has only limited application, and requires considerable creativity and effort to bring to life, and still contains some constraints even if and when one can develop it beyond the womb of an idea.
9/24/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
There are plenty of things obvious to almost any adult, motorist or pedestrian about large vehicles. The most obvious is their size and mass. But at the other end of the spectrum lie nuances rarely understood by anyone who has not driven a vehicle with a long wheelbase: The way such a vehicle turns, and the way its tires "track" compared to those of a typical automobile, van or pickup truck.
8/21/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As NBT readers of my past columns well know, my perspective on accidents and their causation is pretty skewed because I spend most of my professional time examining their details.
8/6/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
One of the most fundamental concepts of liability is that the defendant "takes the victim as he finds him." Apart from hospitals and nursing homes, few areas of modern life confront, litigate and test this principle as often as public transportation.
7/18/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As we all know, public transportation is a fiercely competitive business, even in operating environments which are subsidized. But the failure to make tiny investments in safety can be costly in the courtroom.
2/26/2013
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
Alcohol and bus ridership present a curious enigma. As a matter of public policy, we allow intoxication. As a matter of free market dynamics, we encourage it. And rightfully so, we want to protect those intoxicated from hurting themselves and others.
12/20/2012
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
This title makes me think immediately of funerals. This is not what this installment is about, although problems in the office and on the road often translate into funerals for operating companies, not just their accident victims.
10/24/2012
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
As most motorcoach community members know, contracting plays a major role in much of our operations - including the 30% of motorcoach service provided to schoolchildren on field trips, as well as the commuter-express service provided under contract to transit agencies.
8/22/2012
· Transportation
By: Ned Einstein
One would think in the Age of Irreversible and Growing Unemployment, employers could phase out their "dead wood" and find some personnel capable of performing their functions competently. Regrettably, bus agencies and companies are generally not among those which do.
6/20/2012
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
One of the unfortunate problems with non-news-oriented magazines is the juxtaposition of their readers' limited long-term memories coupled with the publishers' reluctance to repeat themes (much less whole articles) that are not linked to stories that reflect continuing news or problems.
10/19/2009
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
Recently, I conducted a workshop on safety and liability for transportation directors. I asked innocently, "What do you do after training?" Several attendees shouted out, "More training!"
9/23/2009
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
Many of our fundamental and commonly-held beliefs are invalid because they were derived, often haphazardly, from a blur of intuition, superstition, history, tradition and circumstance rarely subjected to scientific scrutiny. Before the inventions of artificial light and mechanical clocks, being awake during daylight and asleep during darkness were survival necessities - lest one be devoured by predators or stumble into a pit.
9/22/2009
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
In my review of more than 80 public transportation-related accidents and law suits, one almost universal theme has been the absence of any log review. This failure has generally combined with another common theme: A vehicle running behind schedule. The relationship between these two themes is easy to both understand and demonstrate - as is the acknowledgement that they constitute a genuine safety problem. But in a courtroom, the fact that system management failed to notice the vehicle running late - and worse, failed to even look for it - translates into a liability problem as well.
11/3/2004
· Automotive - Vehicular
By: Ned Einstein
Since driving a 20- or 25-ton motorcoach is touted as so being difficult, it is only fair to ask why so much carnage, and so many law suits, occur apart from collisions. In particular, the number of incidents occurring at or near stops seems largely disproportionate to the perceived simplicity of handling things when the bus or coach is stationary
Architecture Expert Witness Jeffrey Grusenmeyer
Jeffrey Grusenmeyer, RA, NCARB
President
21555 Lorain Road
Fairview Park OH
44126-3301
USA
phone: 440-333-1165
Jeffrey Grusenmeyer, Architect; 40 years of experience; NCARB National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Certified; Certified as a Building Official by the Council of American Building Officials; Certified as a Building Official, Master Plans Examiner, Building Inspector, Plumbing Inspector and Residential Building Official by the State of Ohio; Numerous Ohio Board of Building Standards Approved Courses and Presenter.; Appearances and testimony before the Ohio Board of Building Appeals.
Passenger Transportation Expert Witness Howard Berkowitz
Howard F. Berkowitz
Managing Partner
6336 Shinnecock Lane
Lake Worth FL
33463
USA
phone: (561) 719-5541
fax: (561) 432-3001
Howard F. Berkowitz has extensive experience in the Passenger Transportation Industry. Since 1982, his career for over three decades qualifies him as expert in the industry of passenger transportation and provides critical knowledge and expertise in:
Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT), Luxury Sedan & Limousine, Paratransit Operations, Expert Witness, Mass Transit, Compliance, Policy & Procedures, Safety Practices, Wheelchair & Stretcher Securement, and Transportation Network Companies
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