Keeping kids safe on school buses is not ‘frivolous’
Regarding John Sambdman’s Jan. 28 essay, “Frivolous lawsuits hurt Georgia’s businesses”:
I was the lawyer in the case Mr. Sambdman complained about. Nothing “unfair” happened to Samson Tours when it had to answer for its role in the death of our clients’ 8-year-old daughter. Georgia bus laws exist to keep children safe. One law prohibits a school bus from activating its visual signals to load children at a traffic light. A school bus stop sign that conflicts with a green traffic light can be confusing, particularly when drivers are making split-second decisions. The approved route, provided to Samson Tours, did not include the traffic light intersection where my client’s child was killed.
The lawsuit alleged the bus stop was unlawful, which confused a driver and resulted in this tragedy. Samson Tours knew how and where to safely and legally load children. If Samson Tours had abided by the list of approved stops and followed the law, this tragedy could have been avoided. Obviously, the skilled lawyers that represented Samson Tours agreed, because they offered Samson’s insurance policy limits to resolve the case and protect it from a jury verdict.
Sambdman has not used this tragedy to improve the safety of kids who ride school buses. Instead, he has made himself a victim and the poster child for so-called “tort reform,” which is what insurance companies call efforts to make it harder or impossible for injured people to be fully compensated for their injuries. But whom should Georgia protect: multimillion-dollar companies that refuse to take responsibility or the thousands of Georgia children who ride the bus every day?
Thank goodness the citizens of Georgia have courts where they can turn to for justice when corporations refuse to take responsibility.
TEDRA L. CANNELLA, DECATUR
Clarity needed on Project 2025
Isn’t it clear now that President Donald Trump was not truthful when he claimed to not know anything about Project 2025? We saw the photos of him and an architect of the plan in a private plane, and many millionaires and billionaires in his Cabinet were integrally involved in its planning.
I have some questions about its implementation regarding education. Project 2025 requires all public school students to take a military entrance exam. Since the ruling class in Georgia decided that public school funds should be diverted to private schools in the form of vouchers, would the private school children also be required to take the exam?
Also, because the GOP wants to rid the military of gay and transgender people, couldn’t all the children just pretend to be gay to get out of service? It would be a better excuse than bone spurs.
ANNE COOK, MARIETTA
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