A San Francisco Bus Accident Attorney Who Will Zealously Advocate on Behalf of the Injured
Buses provide an inexpensive and convenient mode of transportation for navigating the city or for longer journeys. However, injuries incurred while you are traveling on a bus can be extremely severe or even fatal. While onboard a bus, passengers often experience injuries due to the sudden acceleration of the bus before they are seated.
Injuries can even occur before you board the bus; for example, if the bus door prematurely shuts or the proper steps are not taken by the bus driver so that you can safely board the bus. Additionally, you may be injured by a bus as a pedestrian, driver, or passenger in a vehicle. If you were injured in an accident, a San Francisco bus accident attorney will advocate on your behalf.
Bus injuries often occur due to systemic issues within government bureaucracies or poorly managed private businesses, such as inadequate training for bus drivers or lack of proper rest, causing exhaustion and subsequent poor decision-making. In many cases, it is evident that profit and efficiency are prioritized over safety.
In California, buses, which fall under the category of “common carriers,” are subject to more stringent safety standards than regular passenger vehicles. Bus drivers are also required to take additional safety precautions for passengers who are elderly or physically impaired.
What Should I Do if I Was Injured by or on a Bus?
If you suffer an injury while boarding a bus, exiting a bus, onboard a bus, or were injured by a bus as a pedestrian, driver, or passenger in a vehicle, you should immediately do the following:
- Request that the bus driver call an ambulance and the police so that the police can make a report.
- Obtain an information card from the bus driver, which should include a claim number and/or identifying information for the bus that caused your injuries.
- Contact the entity responsible for operating the bus (typically the City or County in which you were injured) and request all video footage a few minutes before and after your injury from all cameras inside and outside the bus.
- Do not speak to any representatives of the bus operator regarding the details of your injuries, how you were injured, or your medical treatment and future prognosis.
- Contact an attorney experienced in handling bus injury cases.
How Much Time Do I Have to File a Claim After a Bus Injury?
If the bus that caused your injuries was operated by a government entity (i.e., MUNI, BART, the City, County, etc.), you will be subject to the California Tort Claims Act. This Act requires your case to be filed within six months of injury. If your case is against a private company, you will have two years to file a lawsuit from the date of your injury.
How Do Bus Accidents Happen?
Bus accidents can happen for many reasons, often due to operator error. These large vehicles are unwieldy in the best circumstances, so accidents are particularly common when bus drivers are careless.
Common causes include distracted driving, fatigue, or speeding, inhibiting a driver’s ability to react to changing road conditions appropriately. In these cases, a San Francisco bus accident attorney could pursue legal action against the driver and possibly their employer for a crash.
Mechanical failures, like brake malfunctions or tire blowouts, are also frequent culprits. This is particularly true when buses are poorly maintained. It might also be possible to seek damages from the manufacturer of the bus if a defective part caused a wreck.
Understanding the nature of these accidents is important, given that you will only be entitled to compensation if you can establish that a party or parties contributed to the cause of your injuries. Our firm is ready to carefully investigate your crash and identify the liable party or parties.
Financial Compensation for Bus Accident Injuries
Some of the types of financial compensation or damages available in bus accident cases include the following:
Past and Future Medical Bills
The cost of medical care can quickly overwhelm most family budgets following a bus accident. Even if you are covered by insurance, you might be stuck paying for some of those costs yourself. The good news is that if another party is responsible for the accident, you could be entitled to a monetary award based on the cost of that care. You could recoup damages based on treatment like physical therapy, counseling, surgeries, or hospitalization, among other things.
Past and Future Lost Wages and/or Earning Capacity
You might also be entitled to a monetary award based on your lost wages. If you were forced to miss work due to your bus accident injuries, you could recoup that income through a personal injury lawsuit. Additionally, if you are unable to work in the future as a result of the injuries you incurred, a personal injury lawsuit allows you to be compensated for those future losses.
Past and Future Pain, Suffering, and Emotional Distress
Pain, suffering, and emotional distress damages compensate you for the physical pain, mental anguish, and diminished quality of life caused by the accident. These damages address your personal losses suffered as a result of being injured, such as chronic pain, emotional suffering, or trauma.
There is no specific method to calculate your personal losses; however, it typically involves a thorough analysis of the severity of your injuries, their long-term impact on you both physically and emotionally, and how your injuries will affect the activities you are able to perform or enjoy in your daily life.
Contact a San Francisco Bus Accident Attorney from Ribera Law Firm to Learn Why Our Firm Should Represent You
A San Francisco bus accident attorney from Ribera Law Firm has the experience and expertise to obtain the greatest amount of compensation for your injuries, which includes compensation for your past and future medical expenses, past and future loss of income and/or earning capacity, as well as past and future pain, suffering, and emotional distress.
Ribera Law Firm’s San Francisco bus injury attorneys recently achieved a $5,500,000 settlement in a severe brain injury case involving an elderly woman who fell on board a MUNI bus. Video footage from the bus demonstrated that the woman was injured because the bus driver failed to look to see if the passenger was seated before the bus driver began to accelerate.
The elderly woman’s case was resolved within approximately one year of her injury due to the fast-acting bus injury attorneys at Ribera Law Firm, who moved swiftly in obtaining the necessary evidence and petitioned the court for an expedited trial date.