PA School Bus Accident Attorneys
Each school year approximately 23 million children ride school buses to and from school. Additionally school buses transport children to camps, sporting events, on field trips, and to a number of other school and non school-related activities. As a parent, you believe your child will be safe and properly protected while in the care of a school bus driver, however, national data released by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Commission indicates that the annual number of school bus related injuries continues to rise. Each year more then 17,000 children are injured while riding on school buses, sustaining injuries from broken bones and serious lacerations requiring stitches, to more catastrophic injuries resulting in permanent disfigurement, paralysis, and sadly wrongful death.
When a school bus is involved in an accident, the result can be devastating not only due to physical injuries your child may suffer, but also because of the shock that something terrible happened while your child was under the school, local township, camp, or private transportation company’s care. School bus accident statistics reveal that older children, between the ages of 11 and 18 tend to suffer minor injuries, such as sprains, bruises, and lacerations when involved in a school bus accident, while children under 10, suffer more severe injuries including but not limited to head injuries, neck injuries, broken bones, and disfiguring lacerations. Sadly in nearly every case of a school bus related injury, it is found that the school bus accident causing the injury could have been prevented.
All to often it is the error of the school bus driver that is to blame for a school bus accident, and the injuries sustained by it’s passengers. While speeding, and coming to a sudden stop are the most common causes of school bus accidents. Other causes of school bus accidents include but are not limited to:
- Lack of or inadequate driver training
- Driver inexperience
- Reckless driving
- Failure to follow the rules of the road
- Driver inattention due to texting, cell phone use, etc
- Driving while intoxicated
- Driver fatigue
- Failing or deficient brakes
- Failure to inspect and maintain bus
- Faulty repairs
- Lack of proper mirrors
- Defective seat backs
- Defective tires
- Defective seat anchors
- Overloading the bus
- Failure of driver to monitor bus riders
- Failure of bus driver to implement school policies and safety rules
- Violation of Motor Vehicle Statutes
- Vehicle design and manufacturing defects
- Brake failure
- Steering Failure
- Defective or failing special needs equipment
- Failure to perform background checks on school bus drivers
In the United States, most school buses are not required to have passenger seat belts. Instead, school buses are alleged to provide collision protection by creating small passenger compartments. School buses are required to have crush-resistant roofs in the case of a rollover, a minimum strength requirement for joints between steel paneling, seats with high backs and thick energy-absorbing padding. Current studies conflict as to whether compartmentalization provides adequate safety or whether seat belts would reduce injuries and deaths from school bus accidents. However, it seems as though in the event of a bus rollover, unbelted students would have little protection or restraint from being thrown around the passenger compartment and will most likely sustain serious injuries or death.
As a result of under reported injury and fatality statistics, along with the fact that school bus manufacture’s have repeatedly made false and misleading statements regarding the safety and crashworthiness of their products the safety of all too many children and school bus passengers has been compromised. Our experienced team of school bus accident, and vehicle product liability lawyers have spent more then three decades investigating some of the most horrifying school bus accidents. Unfortunately many of these accidents could have been easily prevented. Studies conducted by various boards of education, and other agencies constantly monitoring school bus safety indicates at any given time there are thousands of defective school buses on the road. In one incident alone school bus manufactures Freightliner Corp., and Thomas Built Buses, Inc. recalled more then 40,000 school buses due to a defective anti-lock breaking system, that according to reports resulted in school buses temporarily losing their braking ability for up to three seconds. While school bus industry representatives claim they have addressed defects, other notable product defects still remain. Currently school bus safety advocates are calling for measures to improve the crashworthiness and compartmentalization designs used by school bus manufactures. Safety advocates claim that there are many unchecked defects in the bench style compartmentalization seating used on school buses, emphasizing that manufactures must improve the method and design used to secure the seats to floor along with the amount of padding used in the seats in order to reduce the number and severity of injuries sustained by children involved in school bus accidents.
School districts and school bus drivers are obligated to keep your child reasonably safe while in their care. Many school bus related accidents occur when children are boarding or exiting a bus, at a bus stop, or when a child is walking in a driver’s blind spot. Bus drivers and bus monitors should watch children closely because children may not be aware of these risks, and bus drivers and parents should teach children of bus danger zones. School bus bullying and assaults that are not broken up, stopped, or handled properly by the bus driver could leave your child seriously injured.
If your child has been catastrophically injured or wrongfully killed in a school bus accident, you may be able to hold the bus driver, private bus operator, or the school responsible. Claims of school bus negligence which result in school bus accidents are often highly complex, so it is important to contact an attorney with experience and understanding of the liability and immunity laws regarding school buses and school transportation. The experienced Pennsylvania school bus accident attorneys of Reiff & Bily have successfully represented numerous claims of driver negligence and auto manufacturing defects for over three decades. Our lawyers have seen firsthand how vehicle and bus defects can lead to catastrophic injuries and devastating accidents. For over thirty years we have advocated for passenger safety, especially when it comes to children, and have won hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of catastrophically injured and wrongfully killed victims and their families. Our attorneys are eager to begin investigating your claim so contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation at 1800-421-9595 or contacts us online at www.reiffandbily.com.
