During the school year, children across the country ride school buses to school and after-school sports activities. These buses are transporting children five days a week and at least two times a day and are often involved in traffic accidents that cause personal injuries and death to their child passengers. Cases brought to recover damages for injuries or deaths sustained in school bus crashes can be extremely complex, as they often involve multiple vehicles, multiple drivers, and multiple causes of death and personal injury.
Child accident lawyer and school bus accident attorney Jeffrey Killino has extensive experience with all types of traffic accident cases, including those involving injuries or deaths to children as a result of school bus accidents. If your child has been injured or killed in a school bus accident as a result of someone’s negligence or a vehicle defect, you may be entitled to compensation for your child’s injuries or death. Contact attorney Killino at 877-875-2927 for a free evaluation of your case and to learn more about your legal rights and options.
Legal Liability for Children’s School Bus Accident Injuries or Deaths
School bus accidents may be caused by defects in school buses, defects in other motor vehicles, or the negligence of any number of drivers. Liability for children’s school bus accident injuries or deaths may depend on the negligence and product liability laws of the state in which an action is filed.
Negligently Caused Injuries or Deaths
The liability of a driver and the driver’s employer for injuries and deaths caused by driver negligence may depend on whether the bus was owned by a governmental entity or a private company. The drivers of privately owned school buses as well as the companies that employ them may be held liable, under most states’ negligence laws, for children’s injuries or deaths caused by drivers’ negligence. Such negligence can occur, for example, if a driver fails to pull over during bad weather, drives while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, drives while fatigued, or texts and talks on a cell phone while driving.
In most states, a driver’s violation of traffic laws or other rules of the road will be considered negligence per se, which means that proof of the violation itself is all that will be required to prove the duty and breach of duty elements of a negligence claim against that driver. The plaintiff in any negligence action will also be required to prove that the driver’s negligence was a cause of the child’s injury or death and that the plaintiff suffered legally compensable damages as a result of the plaintiff’s negligence.
A private school bus owner may also be found liable for a child’s school bus accident injuries or deaths if it is determined that the injuries or death were a result of the owner’s negligent maintenance of the school bus in which the child was riding. Maintenance companies hired to maintain school buses may also be found liable for injuries or deaths determined to have been caused by the company’s negligent maintenance.
Many states grant immunity from liability for school bus injuries or deaths to public schools that own the buses and employ the drivers involved in such accidents, however, and to the schools’ public employee drivers. The immunity does not generally cover accidents caused by reckless or grossly negligent driving, however. In addition, if a public school hires a private company to provide buses, drivers, and maintenance of buses, the public school will not generally be granted immunity for deaths and injuries caused to children as a result of driver negligence or negligent maintenance.
Injuries or Deaths Caused by Defects in Buses or Other Vehicles
Children’s school bus accident injuries and deaths may also be caused by a defect in a bus or other motor vehicle involved in a school bus accident. Under most states’ product liability laws, the manufacturers, designers, suppliers, assemblers, and in some states, retailers of such buses or other motor vehicles may be held liable for injuries or deaths caused by vehicle defects. The defects leading to such liability may occur in the design or manufacturing stage of a vehicle’s production or as a result of a failure to warn of certain dangers associated with a vehicle’s use.
Under most states’ product liability laws, actions against the defendants referenced above may be brought as breach of warranty, negligence, or strict liability claims. When an action seeks to recover damages for a child’s personal injury or death, however, the strict liability form of action is most often preferred. This allows the plaintiff to establish liability on the part of all the defendants without having to prove that any of the defendants were negligent in producing the defective vehicle.
Contact Us
child injury lawyer and school bus accident attorney Jeffrey Killino is dedicated to achieving justice for families of children who have been injured or killed in school bus accidents as a result of someone’s negligence or a defective school bus or other vehicle. If your child has been injured or killed in a school bus accident and you suspect that negligence or a vehicle defect was a cause of your child’s injury or death, child accident lawyer Jeffrey Killino can help you obtain the compensation to which you and your family are entitled. Contact attorney Jeffrey Killino at 877-875-2927 for experienced and expert assistance with your child’s school bus accident case.
