School Children at Risk with School Bus Accidents

It has been reported that at least 23.5 million children in the United States travel 4.3 billion miles on school buses each year. Along with this number of children riding school buses to and from school, annually, reports regarding accidents involving school buses also reach a staggering number. A conservative estimate shows that there is at least 17,000 school bus related injuries each year.

School bus related injuries account for 42 percent of the total number of vehicle-related injuries which victims are children. In addition, the age bracket of children who are most often injured in school bus related accidents are from 10 to 14 years old. Younger students are less independent and are more likely to be driven to school by their parents or by car pool while older children are more independent and old enough to ride alone or ride along with their friends.

Many factors may cause school bus accidents. The most common factor involves the negligence of the school bus driver. Among many other factors are by other vehicle drivers’ negligence, pedestrians' negligence, poor school bus maintenance, and defective manufacture of the school bus spare parts or the vehicle, per se.

If your child acquired injuries because of a school bus accident, he or she is entitled to claim damages. If investigation turns out that, the bus driver has been negligent in his duties, which caused the accident, then he, or she and the school that owns or operates the school bus can be sued for damages.

The damages that may be awarded to your child includes monetary damages for the cost of necessary treatments or surgery, future medical costs for rehabilitation and other kinds of treatment and surgery depending on the severity of your child’s injuries. Furthermore, your child is also entitled to receive the monetary equivalent as compensation for the pain and suffering, physical, emotional and psychological trauma experienced by your child.

However, claiming damages from the school that owns or operates the school bus may be a difficult matter to resolve. Schools have lawyers and insurance agents who are experts in defending them from lawsuits. You need to level the playing field by securing the services of expert personal injury lawyers who are highly experienced in pursuing and resolving school bus – related or vehicle-related accidents.

Although we do our best to avoid them, accidents do happen. If it happens, to either you or your precious loved ones, particularly your child, you need expert legal advice and representation in ensuring that your rights are protected.
For more information about negligence visit our Los Angeles Lawyers website

Atty Gabriel Cosh is a legal advocate and a practitioner of law for over 10 years now. He is also an expert in the field of social legislation and personal injury cases.