Getting injured on a bus or train can be traumatic and legally complex. Immediate medical attention, detailed documentation, and legal counsel are crucial. A skilled attorney helps determine liability, prove negligence, and secure compensation. Fast action is especially important when government entities are involved, due to shorter claim deadlines.
Main Points
- Prioritize Medical Care: Seek immediate treatment, even if injuries seem minor.
- Document the Incident: Report the accident, record your memories, take photos, and keep medical records.
- Hire a Specialist Attorney: Choose a lawyer with experience in public transit injury cases.
- Understand Liability: Multiple parties may be responsible — from drivers to manufacturers and government agencies.
- Prove Negligence: Show a breach in duty of care to establish fault.
- Act Quickly: Legal timelines, especially with government entities, can be much shorter than standard personal injury cases.
- Legal Support is Critical: A knowledgeable attorney navigates legal complexities and maximizes your chances of compensation.
Getting injured on a bus or train is rarely anything other than a scary, confusing experience. Whether it’s a city bus, a commuter rail car, or even a private shuttle, transportation accidents can lead to serious injuries.
They also pose serious questions. Who’s responsible? What are your rights? And how do you get the help you need?
Often enough, these cases prove to be more complicated than the average car crash. That’s why seeking the aid of an experienced California bus injury attorney is so important.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through what to do in this frightening accident scenario. Also, we’ll address how the right legal team can help you determine if any parties are at fault.
What to Do After a Bus or Train Accident
Seek Medical Attention
Prioritize your health above all. Even if no obvious injuries present themselves, make sure you’re seen and treated by medical professionals. (For example, you may be in shock and not completely understand the situation. This might make you understate your injuries, but shock itself can be fatal, so prompt attention is crucial.)
If you don’t think you can transport yourself to the nearest emergency department or urgent care center, dial 911. (If it’s a major accident, someone may already have called emergency services, but you’ll at least want to confirm that help is on the way.)
Potential injuries from a bus or train crash include:
- Broken bones
- Sprains
- Severe lacerations (and associated blood loss)
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Severed limbs
- Internal injuries (hemorrhaging, organ ruptures, etc.)
- Spinal, back, or neck injuries
- Muscle and/or tissue damage
Because your health comes first, don’t rush treatment, even if it takes several days to get yourself stabilized.
Per the most recent data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 21,168 people in the US suffered serious injuries due to public transit vehicles, predominantly buses and trains. All the injury types mentioned above will become far worse (and in some cases lead to death) if not promptly treated.
Report the Accident
Once you’re well enough to make a report, do so as quickly as possible. In major crashes involving multiple passenger injuries and/or deaths, police may come to you unsolicited. Regardless of how it happens, make sure the authorities hear your account of the event.
Further, it’s critical to write down the facts of your experience, in as much detail as you can recall. If possible, take pictures, but because you may not be able to do so right after the accident, your written recollections are immensely valuable. Lastly, keep copies of all your medical records. Any bus accident lawyer you retain will want these as backup to your side of the story.
Consult a Bus Injury Attorney
You’ll want to enlist the aid of a train and bus accident law firm. Whatever their other areas of practice may be, it’s critical to speak with attorneys who have considerable experience handling – and winning – personal injury cases resulting from incidents like yours.
Specific knowledge is of the essence here. An attorney with a general personal injury background may not know the laws related to public transportation the way a lawyer with bus accident expertise will. Additionally, any lawyer you choose can help you file any applicable insurance claims (i.e., health and/or accident coverage) and negotiate on your behalf if carriers push back on your filings.
How Your Bus Accident Lawyer Can Help
The extended aftermath of a bus or train accident simply isn’t something anyone should tackle alone. Aside from any physical recovery you may need, the potential emotional and psychological toll can’t be overstated. Attempting to manage these issues and determine your chances of recourse at the same time is simply unwise.
Fortunately, a seasoned and knowledgeable bus injury attorney can shoulder the legal burden for you.
Who is Liable?
Determining fault is rarely simple, but it can become particularly difficult in public transit crashes. These accidents often involve several vehicles, but even if only one bus collided with one other car in your case, that introduces quite a few potentially at-fault parties:
- The bus’s driver and/or manufacturer
- Local or state government (e.g., a department of transportation)
- The car’s driver and/or manufacturer
- A mechanic who serviced either vehicle
- A parts manufacturer who supplied components for either vehicle
Liability could fall with some, one, or none of the parties listed above. In many instances where fault applies, it’s an issue of one or both drivers being negligent or reckless. But if the local transit authority knew of any problems with the driver (a history of negligence, documented substance abuse, personal issues, and so on) and didn’t address them, the government agency could also be held liable.
Consider a different example. If a parts manufacturer didn’t recall components it knew to be defective, it’s solely liable. But if the vehicle manufacturer (or government entity) somehow knew about the defect and didn’t attempt to address the situation, liability may fall on all parties involved.
Proving Fault
Referring back to the single-car, single-bus crash example, you’d need to prove negligence on the part of the car’s driver if you considered them liable.
By contrast, if you and your lawyer thought the bus driver or train operator was most responsible, duty of care comes into play: You must establish that the employee had a duty of care to you (to transport you safely) and fell short by making one or more irresponsible mistakes. (The standard also applies when seeking to prove the liability of any company or government agency.)
Trust Your Lawyer’s Expertise
An experienced commuter train and bus injury attorney with a successful track record will help you find and present the most compelling evidence to support your claim. This can range from accident reports and expert testimony to communications between a transit agency and its vehicle vendor.
The right lawyer – like a Los Angeles bus accident attorney from the May Firm – will also understand the urgency of the situation. For example, if you’re pursuing a liability claim against a government agency in California, you only have six months to file as opposed to the usual two years.
Lastly, your attorney will pursue your case in the manner most likely to win. Whether that means a settlement for economic damages (i.e., wage losses and medical bills), a trial case for pain and suffering, or anything in between, you can count on the May Firm to help you recover compensation you deserve.
If you’ve been injured in a bus or train accident, contact us today to learn more.
