All buses are at risk of being involved in accidents. If you have been hurt in a bus accident, it is likely that someone involved with the bus owes you fair compensation. A Dublin bus accident lawyer at John Foy & Associates can help you receive the justice you deserve.
Suing After a Bus Accident
Bus operators are required by law to provide a standard duty of care to everyone they engage with, including their passengers and other people using the roads. If the negligent actions of a bus driver, bus operator, or other party caused you harm, compensation is due.
The only way to recover that compensation is by filing a claim against the at-fault party. Doing this is not simple, especially if the at-fault party is a government agency. But, a bus accident lawyer in Dublin will be prepared to take on any defendant.
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What Happens in Bus Accidents?
What happens in a bus accident depends on the type of bus accident that occurs. If a large bus with more than thirty passengers crashes into a semi-truck, even this large vehicle can be crippled by the impact. The contents of the bus, including the passengers, would be uprooted and thrown about, causing severe injuries and property damage.
If the bus crashes into a smaller vehicle, damage may be more limited, but passengers may still be forcibly thrown from their seats and injured. If you were wrapped up in either of these scenarios or another bus accident, you need to take action to recover compensation. The only way to do so is to file a claim against the bus company’s insurance.
Typical Bus Accident Causes
Bus accidents are sometimes the fault of the bus driver. At other times, it may be another driver, the bus company, or a bus maintenance provider that caused the accident. Sometimes, it could even be a combination of all of the above.
These are some frequently occurring reasons that bus accidents happen:
Untrained Bus Drivers
Buses are often incredibly large and carry a multitude of passengers. This places a lot of responsibility on bus drivers. If they make a mistake while working, several lives could be placed at risk.
Driving a bus is a focus-oriented job that requires drivers to be constantly aware of their surroundings. They must also have complete control over the vehicles, which requires knowledge of how buses operate.
Sometimes bus companies try to save money by offering minimal training to their employees before allowing them to work. This is inappropriate and often causes severe accidents. A bus driver who has not received adequate training should not be expected to safely operate such a large vehicle.
Finding out if a bus driver had the proper training is difficult without legal resources. That is why you need a Dublin bus accident attorney to assess the incident and find out if proper protocol was followed. If not, your claim could rest entirely on the fact that training was not administered properly.
Bus Failure
Buses have hundreds, if not thousands of interacting parts. Many of these parts require regular maintenance to ensure that everything is operating correctly. Sometimes, bus companies fail to perform this regular maintenance and things go wrong.
While some mechanical failures can be overlooked without trouble, there are certain issues that can cause drivers to lose control of the vehicle. When that happens, they are prone to crashing into vehicles, structures, or pedestrians. Finding out if a mechanical failure caused an accident is difficult because plaintiffs must collect evidence that is held only by the bus company or maintenance company.
This is why it always helps to have a bus accident attorney in Dublin active on your case. They will understand how to navigate the civil courts to ensure that any evidence of mechanical failure is made available to them as soon as possible.
Driver Fatigue
In any profession, fatigue can lower one’s ability to effectively perform their work. Yet, many professions do not involve the safety and security of other people. When bus drivers do their job while fatigued, the results can be deadly.
Driving a bus requires concentration, focus, and awareness. If someone is fatigued, their cognitive ability could be significantly impaired. This impairment stands to affect their ability to react to environmental stimuli and avoid accidents.
Who Is Liable?
Who is liable in a bus accident is never a clear-cut matter. There are several parties involved when a bus accident happens, and all of them can be responsible in some way for the accident.
Some parties that could be liable include:
- Bus companies
- Government entities
- The bus driver
- Other drivers
- Pedestrians
- Maintenance providers
Every one of these parties may play a role in the safe operation of the bus. If they breached their reasonable duty of care, it could have caused the accident that injured you. By trusting a Dublin bus accident lawyer with your claim, you can rest assured that one or all of these parties will be made subject to the civil court process.
Recover Compensation for Your Injuries
Through a bus accident claim, you stand to recover compensation for all of your damages. That includes physical damage, like injuries and property damage, as well as non-physical damages, like pain and suffering and emotional distress. There are other damages that can be recovered too, but it all depends on what you experienced following the accident.
It is possible to file for compensation on your own, but in many cases, only a lawyer will have the resources needed to accurately calculate your total damages. John Foy & Associates has been working on bus accident claims for more than a decade, so trust us to help you fight for justice and full compensation. To get started with a free case evaluation, use the contact form on this page.
478-400-4000 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form