Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Product Liability Claims for Defective School Bus

Millions of children ride in school buses on a daily basis. Consequently, thousands of these schoolchildren are injured due to bus accidents.

Many factors can cause bus accidents, including negligence, starting from the manufacturers of the bus parts down to the driver. Whatever the reason for the bus accident, somebody or some entity are bound to be liable for the personal injuries sustained by the schoolchildren.
The substantial size of a school bus makes it less dangerous for children if the bus becomes involved in a collision crash, if in case it is a low impact one.

However, many serious injuries associated with school buses occur during passenger boarding and disembarking. Schoolchildren are more prone to being hit by other vehicles while stepping out of the bus rather than getting hurt inside the bus after a bus collision accident.

There have also been cases wherein the school bus itself runs over a child after the latter is already out of the bus due to its many blind sides.

In any event, if your child has been injured in a school bus accident, it may be very difficult to claim for damages if the bus is owned or operated by the government or state. Generally, the government is immune from lawsuits. This means that the government cannot be sued for the negligence caused by the bus driver or even due to poor maintenance of the school bus.

Besides immunity, other problems may hinder the filing of lawsuit against the state. Even if the government gives its consent to be sued for the school bus accident, claiming liability is a different matter. You may sue and you may win, but the problem is claiming your damages. The government may be liable but it is hard, if not impossible to exact damages from the government.

If you want to try claiming from the government for the injuries sustained by your child because of a public school bus accident, you should hire expert personal injury attorneys who are very experienced in litigating claims against the government. Otherwise, you might find all your efforts are wasted.