School districts have a responsibility to provide safe transportation and to ensure that district vehicles carrying students are in good working condition. The law recognizes that schools have a duty of care to protect and supervise students during the school day in the same way that a responsible guardian would outside school hours.
Consequently, school districts can be held liable for damages incurred in a school bus accident. Negligent actions could include failing to properly screen drivers or a lack of required bus maintenance and inspections. Since school districts are government institutions, they are subject to different statutes than ordinary citizens. For this reason, anyone considering bringing a personal injury lawsuit against a school district should consult an attorney to avoid missing the opportunity to recover damages.
Who Is at Fault for a School Bus Accident?
An attorney will consider the evidence to determine who should be named in a lawsuit. They may look at the time and location at which the accident occurred, whether the surroundings were unfamiliar to the driver, any unexpected road hazards involved, decisions made by the driver leading up to the accident, potential problems with the bus itself, and whether another vehicle was involved. In many cases, more than one defendant may be named, including:
Board of Education
Schools are responsible for vetting and training bus drivers in their employment, enforcing safety protocols, and regularly inspecting and maintaining buses. Failure to do so exposes districts to liability. Even if a bus driver’s actions are ultimately found to have caused an accident, the school district can still be found negligent through vicarious liability if the bus driver is a district employee.
Vicarious liability is the legal burden of responsibility a supervisory party carries for the actions of a person in their employment. For example, a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of an accident is liable for damages, but so is the school district that hired them. When a district is not the bus driver’s employer because they contract out their transportation, then the bus company would be liable instead.
Bus Driver
Drivers are hired with the understanding that they will complete necessary safety inspections and obey all traffic safety laws relating to their role. Additionally, they are expected to do so free from the influence of drugs or alcohol. Even when a driver is properly trained, driver error often plays a role in school bus accidents:
- Skipping over outlined safety protocols and pre-trip inspections
- Driving recklessly, distracted, fatigued, or under the influence of substances
- Failing to activate amber safety lights at least one hundred feet before a stop or to activate red lights, stop signal arms, and the crossing control device upon stopping the bus
- Disobeying traffic laws governing school buses.
Maintenance Company
When a bus is the only vehicle involved in an accident and the driver is not at fault, a malfunction of the bus itself must be considered, especially if a driver reported potential problems before the accident. Faulty brakes, engine lock-ups, and tire blowouts are the result of lax bus maintenance and inspections. If the bus is owned and maintained by a school district, the district can be named in a lawsuit. If it contracts out bus maintenance, the maintenance company becomes a defendant.
Another Vehicle’s Driver
States have strict laws in place governing how other drivers interact with school buses. Most child pedestrians don’t possess the awareness required to exercise caution as they cross the street to board or exit a school bus. These laws seek to protect them. A driver found to have been reckless or negligent can be named as a defendant in a school bus accident lawsuit.
The Louisiana state legislature makes the following provisions when it comes to motorists and school buses:
- The driver of a vehicle approaching or overtaking a stopped school bus from any direction that is letting kids on or off is required to stop at least 30 feet from the bus when the bus lights and stop sign are engaged.
- The driver should not proceed until the bus deactivates its lights and sign and begins moving.
Other Defendants
Additional defendants may include vehicle or parts manufacturers. When mechanical or parts failure causes accidents, cases are treated as product liability claims, and an attorney must prove that negligent manufacturing and product design were responsible for the harm that resulted.
A drug company that didn’t disclose potentially dangerous side effects could be named as a defendant if a driver unknowingly had a reaction that led to an accident. Accidents caused by poor surface conditions may result in a property owner or municipality being named as well.
How Is the Statute of Limitations Different for School Bus Accidents?
Since school districts are government entities, they are not subject to the same statutes of limitations as private citizens. Specific laws have been created to outline parameters in which victims can seek damages from states, cities, municipalities, and other governmental units.
Louisiana
The Louisiana statute of limitations allows victims and families injured by a school district to seek damages for one year following the date of injury. However, some parishes in Louisiana require claims against a school board to be filed much sooner, anywhere from 30, 60, or 90 days after the accident. A personal injury attorney can help in determining the deadline that a victim has to follow for filing a claim.
Texas
The Texas Tort Claims Act mandates that school districts receive notice of a defendant’s intent to file a lawsuit, and the deadlines to do so vary among municipalities across the state, from 45 days to 6 months. While this piece of legislation gives victims the right to sue state, city, and local governments for negligence, it caps the amount they could receive in damages.
Texas law considers school districts as local units of government, and as such, plaintiffs in a personal injury case are only entitled to $100,000 per victim and $300,000 per accident. Unfortunately, bus accidents tend to involve multiple victims. If maximum damages are awarded, victims would be required to split $300,000, even if their individual damages are much higher. This is another reason for naming multiple defendants when appropriate. It increases the odds that victims and their families will receive the compensation they deserve.
