Lawyer Pages
Bus accident death toll a target of lawsuitsA large bus may seem like a relatively safe vehicle to ride, yet many Americans die annually in bus accidents, often as a result of someone’s negligence. If you have lost a loved one in a wrongful death bus accident, a bus accident lawyer can help you collect damages in a bus accident lawsuit. Almost all buses are common carriers, meaning their business is to transport persons for compensation and they are open to the general public. As a result, a professional bus driver is legally held to a higher standard of care. That means you don’t necessarily have to prove that a collision was the driver’s fault, but rather that the driver could have avoided it by meeting his or her common carrier obligation.School buses have many fatal accidentsSchool buses alone have more than 25 million passengers on 450,000 vehicles daily in America, and in a year’s time these produce 16,000 accidents, 12,000 injuries and 130 deaths. If your child is such a victim, you can file a wrongful death lawsuit against those responsible. Shuttle buses ferrying people to various events also can be vulnerable. After a Massachusetts man was killed by a steel gate crashing into a shuttle bus at Gillette Stadium, his family filed a claim for damages and received over $6 million. Overall, an estimated 330 people are killed in bus accidents each year. Negligence, defective parts can cause bus accidentsA fatal bus accident can occur for a variety of reasons, including driver and supervisor negligence, defective brakes, poor maintenance, design flaws and absence of seat belts. After a February 2003 bus crash involving deaths and injuries, plaintiffs sued and were awarded $17.5 million in damages because the bus had no seat belts or safety glass. Many buses, in fact, are not equipped with seat belts. Because of their bulk, buses also have a tendency to turn over or roll over in an accident. In such cases, passengers may be flung about the bus interior while trapped inside. If a bus causes an accident in which the driver or passenger of a car is killed, or a pedestrian is killed, the bus driver and the bus company also may be liable for wrongful death. The persons who are responsible for such failures can be held accountable via a wrongful death lawsuit. These can be pursued when someone dies as a result of wrongdoing or negligence on the part of others. Their family or their estate can seek legal damages based on this wrongful death. Bus accident cases can be complexSince buses are rarely operated for personal use and usually involve distant owners and even federal regulations, a legal claim after wrongful death in a bus accident can be more complex than a claim involving an automobile accident. It’s important whether a victim was a passenger on the bus, or a pedestrian, or a passenger in another vehicle. If a passenger on the bus, then the bus company as a common carrier owed that person “utmost duty of care.” This duty is higher than the negligence duty extended to pedestrians or those in other vehicles. Because of such cases’ complexities, be sure to contact a qualified wrongful death lawyer with experience in handling bus fatalities.
|