If you get injured in a motor vehicle accident, you have the right to seek compensation for your medical bills and other financial losses arising from the accident from any of the parties responsible for the accident. That means that if you were a passenger on a bus that was involved in a collision, you can file an insurance claim with the bus company’s liability insurance policy if the bus driver was at fault. If the bus driver was not at fault for the accident, you can file a claim with the insurance company of the driver who caused the accident. The parties responsible for bus accidents vary according to what kind of bus it is. Charter buses are the legal responsibility of the private companies that own them, while public city buses are the responsibility of the city. School buses are the responsibility of the school district or, in the case of a bus that transports students to a private school, the responsibility of the school. If you have been injured in an accident involving a school bus, contact a Santa Fe car accident lawyer.
Could the School Bus Driver Have Avoided Getting Hit by a Drag Racing Car?
One afternoon in February 2022, Mario Perez was racing against another car, and for a while, he was winning the race. At his highest speed, he was traveling almost 110 miles per hour. At this speed, he was unable to slow down enough to avoid colliding with a nearby school bus. News reports do not indicate how fast Perez’s car was going at the time of impact, but he must have reduced his speed considerably because no one was killed in the collision. There were 23 students on the bus at the time of the accident, and seven of them sustained injuries severe enough to require hospitalization.
Perez faced more than a dozen counts of criminal charges, including reckless operation of a motor vehicle resulting in great bodily injury. The parents of the students have also filed a lawsuit against Perez since driving at more than 100 miles per hour certainly counts as negligence; they can prevail in this case, even if Perez is not convicted. They have also named Albuquerque Public Schools as a defendant. The students’ families allege that the bus driver did not exercise proper caution because if he had, he would have been able to avoid a collision. In other words, they claimed that the bus driver breached the duty of care to operate the bus safely. Whether they prevail in this claim depends on whether they can prove that it is possible for a bus to get out of the way of a car that is traveling at 100 miles per hour.
Contact Slate Stern About Car Accident Lawsuits
Slate Stern is a personal injury lawyer who represents plaintiffs injured in motor vehicle accidents. Contact Slate Stern in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or call (505)814-1517 to discuss your case.
Sources
https://www.koat.com/article/man-who-hit-aps-school-bus-facing-17-new-charges/40098323
https://www.koat.com/article/new-mexico-racing-children-aps/43459046
Photo by Louis Droege on Unsplash