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Ned Einstein: Expert testimony in public transportation accidents and incidents including bus accidents Einstein. Mr. Finally, Mr.

After receiving his Masters in Urban & Regional Planning from GWU, TA founder & President Ned Einstein began his nearly 40-year career in the passenger transportation field following a year consulting to the Illinois Department of Transportation as a consultant to the US Department of Transportation and its Urban Mass Transportation Administration (currently the Federal Transit Administration) in

the transit field, and later, as a consultant to the FTA's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) in the motorcoach field, and working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the schoolbus field. He began his work in the paratransit field by directing the USDOT's first nationwide study of transportation systems for elderly and disabled individuals, examining 30 systems in 18 U.S. cities, and resulting in USDOT's publication of a three-volume manual on decision-making, system design and operations authored by Mr. Einstein's focus has shifted the past two decades -- increasingly toward the provision of expert witness services -- while periodically conducting and participating in consulting efforts in almost every passenger transportation sector. Einstein's career in the past three and a half decades is likely the most unique in the entire passenger transportation field, as he has directed and participated, at the highest levels, in major projects of a national scope, in every non-rail ground transportation passenger mode or service, in addition to serving as an expert witness in more than 400 personal injury, wrongful death, labor-relations and class action lawsuits.

* In the consulting arena, many of Mr. Einstein's projects were almost legendary, including his coordination of the design and marketing efforts associated with a European-manufactured schoolbus and motorcoach exported to and sold in North America, and 10 years spent operating a 70-vehicle consolidated paratransit and non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) system; the former providing 5.0 passenger trips/vehicle service hour in two huge suburban and rural service areas, respectively. Otherwise, his consulting experiences are unique in that he is one of the few professionals in the entire field who was involved deeply in projects at the planning/system design level, the policy-making level, the operating level (particularly including training, monitoring and evaluation), in virtually every mode, and the automotive level.

* In the forensic arena, as of 2013, Mr. Einstein has participated, as an expert witness, in more than 60 lawsuits involving crossing incidents, more than 70 involving wheelchair and/or passenger securement, 20 molestation and assault cases, and hundreds of others involving transit, paratransit, motorcoach, schoolbus, special education, non-emergency medical, ambulette, taxi and shuttle services, including work on several class action and labor relations lawsuits. (See Common Accident and Incident Scenarios). This fortunate spectrum of experiences has provided Mr. Einstein with a unique perspective for a forensic expert in that he can understand, analyze and opine on almost any type of incident, involving any type of passenger, traveling in, boarding or alighting from virtually any type of non-rail ground vehicle — since he can view the incident from virtually every vantage point, and has an almost encyclopedic technical knowledge of every aspect of vehicle design, system design and operations. Further, his experiences did not merely expose him to these passengers and services. Instead, he directed or participated in high-profile projects in all these areas, and wrote nearly 200 nationally-published books, full-length papers and trade magazine articles published by organizations ranging from the U.S. Department of Transportation and National Academy of Science's Transportation Research Board to major industry trade magazines (most extensively in the schoolbus, motorcoach and transit fields). Einstein holds a few rather strong and somewhat unconventional beliefs about the performance and ingredients of success in expert witness work. While he acknowledges the importance of writing and presentation skills, and the ability to improvise, Mr. Einstein believes that the most important phase of a lawsuit is the analytical phase. He is also a proponent of the school of thought that what wins cases is not generally the brilliance of an attorney or his/her expert, or even the facts, but instead, a direct result of the level and quality of effort devoted to the case.

03/09/2026

One factor that affects securement is track or oval orientation – longitudinal or lateral. If the distance between tracks is too close together – in violation of the requirements for longitudinal length found at 49 C.F.R. § 38.23(d)(2) – then few or no wheelchairs can be secured in that shorter space. This is because the devices to secure the front and rear of the chairs cannot be made shorter than 13 ½ inches – leaving only 21 inches for the distance between securement points on the wheelchair. They are rarely much closer together. So, for example, if the tracks are only 40 inches apart, the vehicle’s purchaser likely saved money in buying a smaller vehicle. But no wheelchair on the planet can be secured in such a small space.

Another variable that affects wheelchair securement is track or oval orientation – longitudinal or lateral. (Ovals are the more modern devices by Q-Straint’s QRT-max system.

03/04/2026

The positioning of wheelchairs in certain modes – against the wall instead of in the center of the vehicle – accounts for the low level of securement on those modes. This pattern is largely the result of the difficulty of drivers reaching ground-level securement equipment located on the wall side of the wheelchair – forcing drivers to effectively kneel down (often hurting their knees), crawl around, and effectively grovel at the feet of individuals whom many consider inferior by virtue of the fact that they cannot walk.

One really strange factor no one would ever think of accounts for a considerable number of wheelchair tipovers: The positioning of chairs against the interior wall of the vehicle. Because efficiency in demand-response service was always poor and became worse once scheduling software was introduced i

03/02/2026

There are many, many reasons why wheelchairs are either rarely secured on certain modes and services or never secured on them. The only mode that reliably secures wheelchairs is a schoolbus – both on a large bus or a smaller van- or minibus-conversion. Whenever they are not secured, there is never a valid reason for this, and this failure is almost always a violation of the ADA, and the lawsuit dealing with this individual’s death or injury – or even the inability to use a restroom – is automatically a violation of that individual’s civil rights. In 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to sit at the rear of the bus, if she did, at least her seat would have been bolted to the floor.

As an expert witness whose former paratransit company, PTS Transportation, transported 1100 developmentally disabled passengers a day (in addition to scores of non-emergency medical patients for many years of this decade), we never experienced a single wheelchair tipover in an estimated 29M miles of

02/20/2026

In the initial days of wheelchair transportation, a major problem was that the securement points were not far enough apart to accommodate some of the longer chairs. Those days of canvas straps getting caught within their ratchets progressed to the modern system where thin straps wind around a spool found inside a housing – leaving room for two or more feet of strap to be pulled out from any operable housing, with a far lesser chance of them getting caught (and needing repair). Instead, a growing problem with the modern equipment used almost entirely today is that, while the devices can be lengthened by several feet (simply by pulling out more of any housing’s strap), the combination floor fitting, housing and J-hook is now typically (if not mostly) 13 ½ inches long. So the problem has become the fact that these devices cannot be made SHORTER. As a result, it is difficult or impossible to secure a wheelchair within the ADA-required 48-inch minimum longitudinal space for it if the chair’s securement points are fewer than 21 inches apart – since the 13 ½-inch-long securement device at each end leaves only 21 inches of room to place the chair where it can be secured
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This episode – one of perhaps 30 or more – deals with an inexcusable ability for vehicle converters to grasp the most simple of principles – the distance between securement points of a wheelchair and the failure of the Federal Transportation Administration to make any remote effort to educate ...

02/11/2026

There are a lot of contradictions in many Federal transportation regulations, the ADA among them. Some are so different that they literally invite lawsuits. And different entities or constituents in the field favor different provisions over others: Regulatory agencies generally prefers them to be weak and fuzzy, while passengers and their advocates would generally prefer them to be more stringent and less ambiguous. With the latter, there would certain be fewer lawsuits. But depending on which political parties wield the most power, the tightness or looseness of regulations swing back and forth from administration to administration. I personally expect this pendulum to swing back and forth in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, a lot money and a lot of mayhem, echo these swings. But as long as many see various positions as having more or less freedom, I do not expect much change.

Anyone but a hard-core sociopath (or someone enduring a long incarceration) should be extremely grateful for the countless things this country has accomplished, even if our history is tarnished with unforgivable evil and inexcusable behavior. And despite plenty still wrong with this country, and to

02/09/2026

Poor training and reckless disregard do not dominate the provision of transportation of our severely disabled residents. These failures often do great harm to a subsection of their passengers. But be careful to not make things worse by trying to outsmart those individuals likely to be familiar with these patients. And if you have forgotten the lessons you learned as a Cub Scout (or perhaps even a Brownie), if you get caught trying to pretend that something other than your violation of these childhood lessons was at stake when you committed them, you could be that rare fool who pays dearly for failing to remember that lesson. One such fool in a case I’m actively involved in – and possibly his accomplices -- is about to enjoy a serious, multi-year life-altering experience in one of our nation’s rundown hotels of incarceration, with little interest in the experience making him a better person when the ordeal is eventually over. Lest you forget, this isn’t Norway.

Adding to the possibly unending list of variables about wheelchair tipovers – the second most-common incident scenario in public transportation in most of its sectors – is a common response by drivers after some wheelchair user spills out of his or her chair – a scenarios that CAN NOT POSSIBLY...

01/30/2026

Drivers of public transportation vehicles with long wheelbases must often begin their right turns in the oncoming lanes of the roadways into which they turn, and because schedules are commonly too tight, they make “rolling left turns” much too fast.

I have written extensively about the impact of tight schedules on both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-pedestrian incidents (see https://transalt.com/article/tight-schedules-part-1-the-other-achilles-heel/; https://transalt.

01/29/2026

A handful of errors and omissions account for a large number of turning incidents. An attorney is well advised to be aware of them and examine such incidents from these multiple angles.

My fully intact long-term memory remembers a cliché from my driver’s ed youth: Half of all collisions occur three or fewer blocks aware from one of the motorist’s homes. This is not because the familiarity induces one motorist to pay less attention.

01/20/2026

Along with industries well-known for gross overcharging and/or corruption – like Big Pharma, and Big Oil and more and more industries consolidated into a small handful of oligopolies - public transportation is clearly a member of the “Deep State.”

As a reader skims through installment after installment about wheelchair tipovers (many more to come after this installment), he or she must be astonished by the magnitude and variety of corruption and waste that public transportation encompasses. And as the episodes have progressed, it is clear tha

01/15/2026

Because neither healthcare agencies nor the brokers they hired to engage and “direct” the service knew what they were doing, neither cared how much money was wasted by letting the providers do what they wanted.

For decades before NEMT brokers entered the non-emergency medical transportation (or NEMT) service scene, most companies that actually provided the service earned most of their money in two ways: 1. Turning in phantom invoices (called “Transportation Authorization Requests,” or “TARs” in tho...

01/14/2026

A major reason for most wheelchair tipovers is the vehicle’s running behind schedule – and usually where the schedule is too tight, and multiple safety compromises are committed.

One characteristic of almost every wheelchair tipover – not commonly known or even suspected by “civilians” not involved as professionals in public transportation (ranging from a driver and attendant to a system’s CEO or General Manager) but well known to almost everyone and anyone actually ...

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https://transalt.com/, https://publictransitexpert.com/, http://crossingaccidents.com/, http://wheelchairtipovers.com/

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