When you ride a bus, you pay your fare and place your trust in the driver to get you to your destination safely. Passengers expect that the bus has been properly maintained and that the driver has been thoroughly trained. Many bus passengers do not realize how common bus accidents are and how easily they can occur. Municipal transit, Greyhound, Coach, and other private charter bus companies are amongst the most popular mass transportation carriers across the United States.
Bus accident claims can entail a great deal of additional complications. Because most buses are considered common carriers, different rules may apply as compared with accidents that involve only private vehicles. In addition, if one of the parties is a government agency, there may be limitations on your ability to recover damages for a bus accident.
There are many different reasons why bus accidents occur. Defectively designed or manufactured vehicle may often be to blame. Sometimes, vehicles have not been properly maintained. Other times, operators fail to follow proper safety procedures — especially in steep mountain conditions or inclement weather. In some cases, drivers may even be improperly trained, unqualified or intoxicated behind the wheel. The best personal injury attorneys handle serious bus accident cases across the United States involving:
- Equipment failure
- Improperly licensed or inexperienced driver error
- Negligent maintenance and safety inspection
- Missing or faulty safety devices and defective vehicle design
- Bus accident fire or drowning
- Bus accidents resulting in major injury, death or multiple fatality
Compared with safety measures currently used in planes, automobiles, and even passenger trains, passenger safety in buses is largely deficient. Lets start with seat belts. Legislators have been pushing mandatory seat belt implementation in buses for almost 30 years. Critics in the charter bus industry argue that mandatory seat belt use would be too expensive and would add too much weight to a bus. This argument continues to be successful at the expense of passengers livelihood.
The structural integrity of a bus roof is also a major safety concern. The survivability of passengers involved in a bus crash often times depends upon the strength of the roof. Current strength in bus pillars between the windows is minimal due to the desire of the bus company to use large windows for passenger viewing. Currently the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) views bus roof strength as a top priority for future legislation.
In the event that you are riding the bus that bus is involved in an accident with another vehicle, your claims process may become quite difficult. The first difficulty you may encounter has to do with the number of people who will be making a claim. If the accident is caused by the other vehicle, there may be dozens of passengers aboard the bus who need to file a personal injury claim against the other driver’s insurance policy. As you can imagine, very few people have an insurance policy of significant enough value to compensate all of the passengers fairly. In such an event, you will need the help of an experienced bus accident attorney to ensure that you are fairly compensated for your injuries. Your attorney can help you by identifying potential other sources of money from which you can be compensated, and by helping you claim priority for your portion of the responsible driver’s insurance policy.
Public, charter or limousine bus accidents can be devastating because of the number of passengers carried inside a bus, combined with the fact that most buses are not equipped with, or do not require riders to utilize, seat belts. Bus accidents are further complicated by the fact that bas riders are free to move about the cabin of the bus to socialize or use the restroom and, when busses are full or overcrowded, riders are permitted to stand.
School Bus Accidents
If your child has been hurt in a school bus accident, you owe it to your child to pursue damages against the person or company that caused the accident. You or your child may be able to receive compensation for your child’s medical bills, rehabilitation costs, nursing care, pain and suffering and, in some cases, lost income. Additionally, you may be able to recover damages if you had to take time from work or your child suffered a disability that requires continuing medical care and treatment. If your child was killed, you may be able to recover damages for his or her wrongful death.
Although school bus transportation is usually safe, there are a substantial number of school bus injury accidents every year. Nearly one-fourth of the bus accidents occur when children are boarding or leaving school buses, while crashes account for forty-two percent of the injuries. On average, more than ten children each year die as a result of school bus-related accidents, with forty percent of those deaths occurring between the hours of 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
School bus accidents can be caused by such contributing factors as driver negligence, dangerous roadways, weather conditions, defective products and improper maintenance, among others. According to school bus accident statistics, almost one half (45 percent) of all school bus accidents involve impacts to the front end of a school bus. Other common crash types include right side impacts, non-collisions, and left side impacts, rear impacts, and top impacts in descending order.
