School Bus Accident Lawyers

Around 650,000 students ride the bus to school each and every day in Indiana. We entrust school buses with the most precious cargo there is, relying on them to help our children get the educations they need to enjoy the futures they deserve. While our trust is usually rewarded, a serious school bus accident could transform any parent’s worst nightmare into a reality. School bus accidents claimed 108 lives across the United States in 2021 and inflicted many more injuries, the most extreme of which could demand prolonged treatment that few families could afford without assistance.

Fortunately, you may be able to obtain that assistance by initiating a personal injury case, and you can increase your chances of success if you get in touch with the Indiana car accident lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, who have been getting justice for the badly injured since 1998.

For a free case review with a dedicated Indiana school bus accident attorney, please call us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form now.

Common Causes of Indiana School Bus Accidents

Every school bus accident is unique, but certain elements are strongly correlated with collisions involving school buses, some of them arising from particular aspects of the school buses themselves, such as:

Higher centers of gravity – Because they have higher centers of gravity, school buses may be susceptible to shifting or tipping over when they brake suddenly or swerve.

Restricted maneuverability – Additionally, school buses are heavier than most passenger vehicles, so their drivers must make a concerted effort to maneuver them without incident.

Mechanical malfunctions – Mass transit vehicles like school buses incur a lot more wear and tear than most cars and trucks, logging four times as many miles per year, so they could be more prone to major mechanical malfunctions in the absence of routine maintenance.

Confusion over school bus operations – Drivers who are not familiar with the specialized ways in which school buses operate in traffic could end up smashing into them at a greater rate.

Other contributory factors may be external to the school buses, such as poor road or weather conditions. Nevertheless, school bus accidents are most commonly caused by driver errors, examples of which may include:

Speeding

Distraction

Illicit cellphone usage

Fatigue

Intoxication

Regardless of the underlying cause of your accident, our Indiana school bus accident lawyers will do everything in their power to hold everyone who may be at fault to account.

Who Is at Fault for an Indiana School Bus Accident?

But exactly who is at fault for an Indiana school bus accident? The answer may depend upon the circumstances leading up to it.

For instance, a school bus driver could be liable for reckless behavior that brings about a crash, as could the school or school district employing that driver, both for the driver’s negligent actions and for negligent actions of its own, such as inadequate driver training or bus servicing. If the driver is employed by a private bus company, that company could be liable for similar reasons, along with the school or school district that retained the company.

However, if an outside driver is responsible for an Indiana school bus accident, he or she could be culpable, not to mention the owner of his or her vehicle (if separate from the driver) and any business deploying that vehicle for commercial purposes (if separate from the owner).

Potential defendants might also include a mechanic whose inattention precipitates a breakdown-related collision, manufacturers, distributors, or retailers whose defective parts hasten that breakdown, or a government agency whose failure to repair a road hazard makes a crash inevitable.

Sometimes multiple individuals and entities could share varying degrees of legal and fiscal liability simultaneously, and each of them has to be pursued within the time allotted by law, known as the Statute of Limitations. The Statute is generally two years from the date of loss for most Indiana auto accidents, but it can be much shorter in cases against the government, which are often brought over school bus accidents, with further requirements that may have to be met under the state’s Tort Claims Act.

If you don’t file a lawsuit or resolve your claim before the Statute expires, you could be forever barred from full financial recovery – the sort of senseless oversight that our meticulous Indiana school bus accident attorneys won’t permit when they are handling your case.

Do You Have Grounds for an Indiana School Bus Accident Case?

Though the child passengers of school buses constitute a substantial portion of the people who are harmed in Indiana school bus accidents, they are far from the only victims in these kinds of events, nor are they the most frequent victims either.

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study of school bus accident data collected from 2013 through 2022 revealed that just 36 percent of those who were injured were the passengers of the school buses, while another nine percent were the school buses’ drivers. In contrast, 51 percent of the victims were the occupants of vehicles that made contact with the school buses, with bicyclists, pedestrians, and other assorted figures making up the remainder.

The results are more startling when it comes to the victims killed during this period, of whom a mere five percent were school bus passengers, four percent were school bus drivers, and 71 percent were the occupants of other vehicles (plus other miscellaneous parties).

These figures may be unexpected, but they make sense in light of how much bigger a school bus is compared to the average car, whose driver or passengers would probably absorb the brunt of an impact between the two vehicles. Yet no matter which vehicle you may find yourself in, Hensley’s skilled Indiana school bus accident lawyers should be able to get you fairly compensated for your injuries when somebody else is to blame for them.

How Our Indiana School Bus Accident Attorneys Can Make a Difference

The consequences of a school bus injury can be felt for months or even years when it befalls a young child in the early stages of development. Moreover, it can be maddeningly difficult to secure the resources necessary to overcome the challenges you might face, but the Indiana school bus accident attorneys at Hensley Legal Group can make a difference.

If you hire Hensley, we will launch a comprehensive investigation into the school bus accident to identify the defendants who played a role in it, then establish valid claims against them and possibly file suit as well in a court with the authority to issue a binding judgment.

Next, we will move swiftly to amass the materials to construct an airtight case before entering into exhaustive negotiations with the defendants’ insurance carriers for a settlement that reflects everything that the bus accident has cost you, including:

Medical bills

Wages forsaken to care for the child

Pain and suffering

Psychological trauma

Scarring and disfigurement

Impaired mobility

Diminished quality of living

Punitive damages (if applicable)

And if we do not receive an offer that is worthy of your claim, we are not afraid to go to trial for a verdict that is, unlike some of our competitors, who seldom, if ever, venture into a courtroom.

No two Indiana school bus accidents are entirely the same, but our tenacious Indiana school bus accident lawyers will always strive to maximize the value of yours.

You Won’t Owe Us Anything Unless We Win 

You might be reluctant to agree to more expenditures when you have spent so much already, but our firm works on a contingency basis, which means that you won’t owe us anything unless our Indiana school bus accident attorneys win your case. 

The world may have stopped the moment you heard your child had been hurt in a school bus accident, but Hensley will leave no stone unturned until you and your loved ones can get back to normal.

Reach Out to Our Indiana School Bus Accident Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group has been fighting for honest Hoosiers like you for more than 25 years. If you have no idea what to do in the aftermath of a school bus accident, reach out to our Indiana school bus accident lawyers to discuss your legal options.

You can schedule a complementary consultation with a knowledgeable Indiana school bus accident attorney by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form today.