What Should You Do After a School Bus Crash?

August 28, 2024

The United States is home to over 283 million registered motor vehicles facilitating an estimated 1.1 billion trips each day. These vehicles are deployed for a wide range of purposes and can take virtually every form imaginable, including school buses, which we entrust with the most precious cargo there is: our children. 

Every morning and afternoon during the school year, about 547,000 domestic school buses transport some 20.5 million students.  By and large, these students are in very good hands – arguably better off than they would be if they were walking or riding in cars.  Nevertheless, when school bus accidents occur, tragedy can ensue, with school bus crashes leaving 12,500 injured and 104 killed across the country in 2022 alone.  What should you do after a school bus crash?  Join us as we discuss the steps to take when a child is hurt in a school bus accident. 

Common Causes of School Bus Crashes 

Before we delve into what should be done when there is a school bus crash, it is important to understand why a crash might take place at all.  Every motor vehicle accident is different, the outcome of a host of unique events along the way, but certain elements are regularly linked to school bus crashes.   

Some of these elements have to do with the school buses themselves, including: 

• Restricted maneuverability – School buses are much heavier than most passenger vehicles, so bus drivers may need to make an additional effort to maneuver or control them while they are in traffic. 

• Higher centers of gravity – School buses also tend to have higher centers of gravity, which could make them shift or even tip over if they swerve or stop suddenly. 

• Mechanical issues – Poor maintenance or defective parts could bring about dangerous mechanical issues that could end in otherwise avoidable crashes, such as locking brakes, steering or suspension failures, and tire blowouts.  The demand for maintenance is especially pressing for mass transit vehicles such as buses, which accumulate four times as many miles per year as most cars and trucks. 

• Unfamiliarity with school bus operations – School buses operate in a specialized manner, and drivers who are unfamiliar with these operations may end up colliding with them. 

Some elements may be external in nature, such as: 

• Road hazards – Potholes, loose gravel, oil spills, and other road hazards could make it more difficult for school buses to maintain traction. 

• Inclement weather – Both traction and visibility could be compromised by inclement weather, such as rain, sleet, hail, fog, snow, and ice. 

While problems like these can indeed play a role in a school bus crash, driver errors actually make up 94 percent of the “critical reasons” for all motor vehicles accidents.  Some of the most common driver-related causes of school bus crashes include: 

• Speeding – Traveling too fast decreases how long drivers have to respond and increases how long it takes them to slow down, which could make school bus crashes more likely to happen and more destructive when they do. 

• Distracted driving – Distraction is the second greatest contributor to motor vehicle accidents, killing around nine Americans per day. Distracted driving has only become more prevalent with the rise of cellphones, which now factor into 12 percent of collisions.  

• Distraction from passengers – While distraction can affect drivers of any kind of vehicle, school bus drivers may be particularly vulnerable to distraction from passengers, given how many passengers they may have and how prone those passengers are to making a commotion.       

• Intoxication – School bus drivers are not apt to be drunk or high behind the wheel, but the same might not be said of other drivers in the vicinity, whose intoxication could put a school bus and its occupants in jeopardy. 

• Fatigue – Drowsiness can hinder driving as much as drunkenness, resulting in 100,000 collisions, 50,000 injuries, and 800 deaths annually, and school bus drivers could be disproportionately susceptible to fatigue because of how many more hours they spend driving compared to the typical motorist. 

These errors could be committed by drivers of school buses or by drivers of other vehicles in close proximity.  Either way, they could lead to serious school bus accidents that might inflict grievous bodily harm. 

Who Can Be Injured in a School Bus Crash? 

When you hear the phrase “school bus crash,” you might assume that children would be the primary victims.  But while school bus passengers make up a sizeable portion of those who are hurt in school bus accidents, they are not the only ones who could be hurt, or even the ones who are hurt the most frequently. 

According to school bus accident data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 2013 through 2022, only 36 percent of those injured were school bus passengers.  Another nine percent were school bus drivers, while more than half – a full 51 percent – were occupants of other vehicles that collided with the school buses.  (The remainder of the injured were pedestrians, bicyclists, and other miscellaneous figures.) 

Of those who were killed in school bus accidents during this decade, only five percent were school bus passengers, four percent were school bus drivers, and a staggering 71 percent were the occupants of other vehicles (with pedestrians, bicyclists, and others making up the rest of the deceased).   

These numbers might surprise you, but they make sense once you consider how much bigger school buses are in comparison to most vehicles that may hit or be hit by them, a disparity that exposes the occupants of the smaller vehicles to the brunt of any impact.  While this article mostly focuses on the injuries sustained by students and other school bus passengers in these sorts of incidents, anyone who is hurt in a school bus crash could be eligible for compensation when somebody else is responsible for it. 

Who Is Responsible for a School Bus Crash? 

So exactly who is responsible for a school bus crash?  The answer to that question will depend upon the circumstances surrounding the crash. 

For example, if the driver of a school bus engaged in reckless behavior that precipitated a crash, he or she could be culpable for any injuries and damages that were incurred.  Moreover, the school or school district employing that driver could be culpable as well, both vicariously for the bus driver’s actions and for any actions of its own that contributed to the accident, such as neglecting to provide sufficient training for the driver or sufficient maintenance for the school bus.  If the driver worked for a private bus company, that company could be held to account along similar lines, as could the school or school district hiring that company. 

Alternatively, if a school bus crash was caused by another driver, he or she could be blamed, as well as the owner of his or her vehicle (if separate from the driver) and any company making commercial use of that vehicle (if separate from the owner). 

Other entities could be at fault too, such as a mechanic whose lax servicing of a school bus or some other vehicle brought about a breakdown-related school bus accident, or the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of a defective component that hastened that breakdown.  And when a school bus accident is a consequence of perilous road conditions, the government agency in charge of building or repairing that road and any contractors working for it could be civilly pursued.   

Sometimes multiple individuals and entities might have varying degrees of legal liability for a single bus accident, for which they might have varying degrees of fiscal liability.  In light of this inherent complexity, it is crucial to go after all of the defendants within the time allotted by law, known as the Statute of Limitations, which could be notably shorter when government bodies are involved, as is often the case with school bus accidents.  Neglecting to file suit or resolve a claim before the Statute expires could forever bar you from full economic recovery. 

How to Avoid School Bus Injuries 

Since the safety of children could be at stake, it is imperative to do everything you can to avert school bus injuries, whether from school bus crashes or from other accidents on or near school buses.   

In many ways, school bus safety begins with concerned parents taking a moment to instruct their kids on how to conduct themselves when they are heading to or from school.  To that end, some useful tips for your children might include: 

• Remain seated at all times 

• Buckle up if seatbelts are available 

• Keep your arms and hands inside the bus 

• Don’t make excessive noise (screaming, blasting loud music) 

• Don’t distract the driver 

• Keep an adequate distance from the street when waiting for the bus 

• Look both ways before boarding or disembarking 

Guidelines to Follow After a School Bus Accident 

We hope that you have found these tips worthwhile, though the sad truth is that a school bus crash is sometimes inevitable, and it can be a terrifying development for both child and parent alike.  It is tough to know what to do in an unfortunate situation like this, but the following guidelines could be beneficial to your child’s well-being and to the viability of any bus accident case initiated on your child’s behalf.  After a school bus crash, you should: 

• Notify the police – School bus drivers have a duty to alert the police about all crashes, but you should notify them promptly if a driver has not done so.  Be sure to give them detailed information about the incident, since an accurate police report is pivotal for any subsequent claims and legal proceedings. 

• Seek medical attention – Your child’s health comes first.  Whether or not paramedics arrived at the scene of the school bus crash to administer aid to your child and others, you might want to take your child to an emergency room, an urgent care center, or the family doctor anyway, even if you are not sure that he or she has been harmed.  The symptoms of some automotive injuries may emerge only gradually, and it is always preferable to rule out an injury instead of leaving it alone until it becomes impossible to ignore. 

• Take pictures and shoot videos – If your child has visible injuries, take pictures and shoot videos throughout the healing process.  Such visual documentation could be invaluable later on when you are seeking to get your child compensated for those injuries.  Try to keep a written record too, such as a pain journal tracking your child’s progress or lack thereof, which could be more effective for injuries that are not as readily apparent. 

Injuries are not the only things that pictures and videos can record.  Older students who have smartphones or tablets could help their claims enormously if they use them to capture their surroundings in the aftermath of a school bus crash. 

• Reach out to your auto insurance company – While your auto insurance liability policy will probably not apply directly to your child’s school bus accident, that does not mean that you could not access other benefits featured in that policy, chief among them uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage if you have it.  UM/UIM coverage could be a potential avenue of recovery if the liable parties do not have any insurance at all or if that insurance is not equal to your child’s losses. 

• Stay away from other insurers – Speaking of the liable parties, representatives from their insurance companies, the school district, or anyone else with a financial stake could reach out to you in the wake of the school bus accident, but it may not be in your interest to talk to them yet.  These organizations have an incentive to minimize the damages from the school bus crash, and even the most innocuous comment you make could give them the ammunition to do just that.  Instead… 

• Talk to an attorney – A skilled school bus accident lawyer can answer all of your questions, educate you about your rights, and put you in a much stronger position if your case moves forward. 

What a School Bus Accident Attorney Can Do for Your Family 

Harm befalling your child is your worst nightmare as a parent.  If that nightmare becomes a reality, it is vital to do everything in your power to get your child the resources to become whole again.  One of the best ways to do that after a school bus accident is to team up with a capable attorney, like the dedicated personal injury lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, who have been standing up for the wrongfully injured for more than 25 years. 

What can a school bus accident attorney do for your family?  After taking your case, your lawyer can launch a comprehensive investigation into the school bus accident and everyone who may be to blame for it within the time permitted by law.  Your attorney will then establish valid claims against all of them, sending formal notification in writing to the defendants and their insurance companies.  A lawsuit could be filed as well in a venue with the authority to issue a binding judgment. 

Next, your lawyer will act swiftly to amass the materials to support your claim, such as: 

• Police reports 

• Citations and dispositions 

• Dash cam, streetlight, and surveillance footage 

• Black box data 

• Witness statements 

• Phone records 

• Driving histories 

• Vehicular servicing logs 

• Accident reconstruction and forensic analysis 

If proof of wrongdoing exists, your attorney will work tirelessly to find it. 

After putting together an airtight case against all of the defendants, your school bus accident lawyer will enter into negotiations with their insurance carriers and attorneys, striving for a settlement that reflects the entirety of your family’s damages, such as: 

• Past, present, and future medical bills 

• Lost income (secondary to work missed to care for the child) 

• Pain and suffering 

• Mental and emotional trauma 

• Diminished quality of living 

• Impaired mobility 

• Punitive and wrongful death damages (if relevant) 

When faced with evidence that compellingly conveys both a plaintiff’s damages and a defendant’s guilt, many adjusters and defense lawyers can be convinced to extend a fair offer rather than risk a worst verdict at trial.  This is a key part of why personal injury plaintiffs with attorneys obtain 3.5 times more on average than personal injury plaintiffs without them. 

Though school bus accident cases can be resolved outside of the courtroom, sometimes a trial may be necessary.  At that point, an experienced litigator will become indispensable, since plaintiffs who represent themselves in court lose about 96 percent of their cases, whereas plaintiffs with lawyers are favored to prevail. 

What Will It Cost to Retain a School Bus Accident Lawyer? 

We realize that you might be worried about agreeing to more expenditures when you may least be able to afford them, but you should know that most school bus accident attorneys work on a contingency basis.  This means that it should not cost you anything up front to retain a lawyer, and he or she may even pick up some of the preliminary costs associated with your case, such as ordering a police report or filing a lawsuit. 

Only when your school bus crash case is brought to a satisfying conclusion will reimbursement be sought for out-of-pocket expenses and a fee for services rendered, usually taken as a percentage of your final verdict or settlement – which is statistically much more substantial with a proficient attorney in your corner.  It is a mutually beneficial arrangement that can save you added stress during an already stressful period and let you acquire the funds your child needs to continue enjoying a rewarding life. 

Fighting for Hardworking Hoosiers Just Like You 

Since opening its doors in 1998, Hensley Legal Group has been fighting for hardworking Hoosiers just like you.  No feat is too daunting or adversary too intimidating to keep our tenacious Indiana personal injury lawyers from doing whatever it takes to get justice for injured clients. 

To schedule a free consultation with an accomplished Indiana personal injury attorney, you can call or text us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form at your earliest convenience.