Barbara Joyner Suicide

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On February 10, 2001, District of Columbia resident, 57 year-old Barbara Joyner’s life changed forever. That day, the retired duty nurse was a passenger on a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) bus. As a result of her decision to take a bus to get her to where she needed to go, she became permanently injured and her life was irrevocably changed. One might assume her injuries came as a result of a bus crash, since according to a 2010 study from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, there was an average of 63,000 buses were involved in crashes from 199 to 2005. In these accidents, there were 14,000 that caused injuries to the passengers of some kind. The study also found inter-city buses to have …show more content…

As a result, the placement of the bus when parked created an optical illusion. This made it seem from Barbara’s point of view as if the bus was flush with the curb and she could safely disembark. This wasn’t the case though. The bus was in fact parked at an odd angle from the sidewalk. The sidewalk was in fact two to three feet away from the bus, even though it looked flush. Barbara happened to be the first passenger to exit the bus. As she was exiting, she stepped down assuming there was a sidewalk under foot. Due to the awkward placement of the bus, she stepped down into thin air. This caused her to fall between the bus and sidewalk. The passengers who followed her off the bus inadvertently stepped on her as she struggled to regain her balance. To make matters worse, the bus driver called out to Barbara , “You didn’t fall of my bus! You must be stupid!” Not only was the bus driver uncompassionate towards his passenger’s plight, he was also inexperienced as he had only been on the job for around 10 months and was talking on a cell phone and acting carelessly while …show more content…

She also had a navicular fracture in her left foot. This injury required grafting of the bone from her knee onto her foot. The process required two surgeries because doctors had to go back in and remove hardware from her foot and leg. The end result caused significant scarring to Barbara’s foot and leg. She was also placed in a cast multiple times and had to use a walker during her rehabilitation. As one might image, her daily activities were greatly altered. She claims she is unable to complete many of the tasks that she was able to handle before, which has led to great hardship. Her medical bills alone were estimated in excess of $54,000 for the

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