School buses are of great help especially when we cannot take our children to school by ourselves. To and from school, we entrust the safety of our children to these school buses. However, a rather unfortunate accident can happen for some of us.
School bus accident is not unheard of across the country. More often than not, these accidents involved negligence on the part of the bus driver. Despite numerous tests, clearances, requirement compliance, etc. that bus drivers undergo, still some manage to be negligent and put our children’s safety at risk.
We see and hear that school bus accidents have risen. While we can no longer bring back time to undo the unfortunate event that cause the loss of our child, or injuries, because of the accident, we are not however completely helpless. The law is in our side and we only have to invoke it.
From year 1990 to 2001, there were recorded 50,000 to 63,000 bus accidents in the US. The figure includes school, transit and intercity buses. Death toll is rather low, fortunately, but injuries reached a staggering figure of 15,000 to 21,000.
A civil suit for recovery of compensation for wrongful death may be pursued by the family of the children who were victim of the school bus accident. This is not to enrich them but to vindicate them for the loss of a loved one.
If the bus was operating illegally such as when it turned out that the bus company was not authorized to operate as a carrier in intestate commerce, then it may be facing more legal repercussion that its owners or operators care to imagine.
Statistics shows that there are at least 360 million bus passengers in the US each year, while there are 30,000 commercial buses for tours, charters, special operations and regular route services.
