Riverside Bus Accident Lawyer

If you’ve suffered injuries from a bus accident, we can help. Contact The Dominguez Firm today at 800-818-1818 for a free consultation.

Bus accidents can cause severe injuries, property damage, and emotional trauma. If you’ve been the victim of a bus accident, you may be facing expensive medical bills and time away from work. Most likely, you’re also probably unsure how you’ll recover financially, emotionally and physically.

The Dominguez Firm personal injury lawyers are dedicated to helping bus accident victims receive the compensation they need to move forward with their lives. Our experienced team of bus accident lawyers have been helping clients throughout Riverside, CA, and the surrounding area secure compensation through insurance claims and lawsuits for over 35 years.

Check out our client reviews to see how we’ve helped past bus accident victims successfully defend their rights.

Common Causes of Bus Accidents

Bus accidents can happen quickly and produce extensive damage. School buses can weigh over 25,000 pounds, and when they collide with other vehicles or objects, they can severely injure their own passengers, other drivers, and pedestrians.

Like traditional car accident cases, Riverside bus accidents occur due to various causes. Here are some of the most common:

• Unsafe road conditions
• Driver negligence
• Distracted driving
• Narrow roadways
• Weight distribution issues in the bus, leading to rollover accidents
• Bus malfunctions
• Bad weather
• Driver fatigue

Driving a bus is a complex, high-pressure task. Drivers must maneuver huge vehicles on tight roadways while carrying up to 80 people at a time.

Bus drivers often work under tight schedules and with immense pressure from their managers to meet deadlines. As a result, drivers sometimes make unsafe decisions to save time.

Additionally, some public transportation companies require employees to work unsafe hours, particularly when the bus companies are understaffed. These long hours can cause drivers to feel fatigued at the end of their shifts, impacting their response time and decision-making.

However, accidents can also occur due to negligence from drivers and pedestrians. Either way, if another party caused an accident that led you to suffer injuries, you can claim compensation from them.

Common Bus Accident Injuries

Unfortunately, school bus accidents often lead to serious injuries that require months or years of recovery. When a bus collides with another vehicle or a large object, odds are many of the bus passengers will suffer injuries, some of them serious. The same applies to any other drivers or pedestrians involved.

A few common injuries from bus accidents include:

• Head injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Spinal cord injuries
• Internal bleeding
• Broken bones
• Whiplash
• Bruises
• Road rash and severe burns
• Sprained and torn ligaments

Bus accidents and other motor vehicle accidents can also be mentally traumatizing, leading to post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.

The most severe bus collisions can result in wrongful death cases by the family of the deceased.

Who Is At Fault in a Bus Accident?

If you are a bus accident victim, you have the right to seek compensation against the at-fault party. However, this is not the sort of claim you want to take on by yourself. Bus accident claims can be complex. There are usually multiple parties involved and determining who exactly was at fault for the bus accident can be difficult.

When an accident occurs, the police will come to the scene, take photos of the vehicles involved, and create a police report. This report will detail the officer’s understanding of how the accident occurred — essentially, who was at fault.

If the police report states that the driver of the bus caused the accident, the blame can fall on the driver, the bus owner, or both parties. The driver may be liable for the accident if their actions directly caused the collision. For example, if a school bus driver failed to follow California law or fell asleep at the wheel, you could attribute the accident to driver negligence.

However, the company that the driver reports to may also be liable. A bus driver may report to a private company, a school district, a state or local government, or the Riverside Transit Agency. These entities may be responsible if:

• They failed to train the driver adequately.
• They required the driver to work unsafe hours.
• They failed to perform required maintenance on the bus, leading to a malfunction.

Alternatively, you may be able to hold both the bus company and the driver responsible. Our Riverside bus accident attorneys can help you navigate your bus accident injury effectively.

How To Receive Compensation From a Bus Accident

If you were involved in a bus accident, you can usually seek compensation for your injuries, especially if you were the passenger since you weren’t driving.

It’s important to file a personal injury claim with the help of a personal injury immediately after the accident. Waiting can hurt your claim so don’t wait to enlist the services of a Riverside personal injury law firm. Once you do this, your attorney will handle all negotiations with the insurance companies involved from there on out. You can concentrate on your recovery from your injuries.

Through a personal injury claim, you can seek compensation for your:

• Medical expenses including ambulance fees, medical treatment and any needed surgeries
• Personal property damage
• Pain and suffering
• Lost wages

If you experienced life-threatening injuries, you will likely need to wait until your doctor determines you have reached maximum medical improvement (MMI) to file your own personal injury claim. MMI is the legal term for the point at which your condition cannot improve any further.

What To Do After a Bus Accident

Bus accidents can be stressful and terrifying, and you may be unsure how to proceed after being involved in one. However, taking the appropriate steps can improve your outcome after an accident.

Here are the steps you should follow directly after a Riverside bus accident:

1. Seek medical attention: Seek medical attention even if you feel okay after the accident. Doing so can give you documentation that can serve as evidence in personal injury claims. It can also help you catch any serious injuries before they worsen.
2. Take photos of the accident scene: If you can safely do so, try to take pictures of the scene of the accident.
3. Hire legal representation: Hiring a Riverside bus accident attorney right away is vital. If you wait, vital evidence will surely be lost and defense attorneys may try to show your injuries weren’t even related to your Riverside bus accident.

How a Riverside Bus Accident Lawyer Can Help

Working with an experienced Riverside bus accident law firm can help you navigate your accident case effectively. Riverside bus accident lawyers can:

• Communicate with the insurance provider on your behalf
• Provide legal advice and guidance
• Have investigators gather evidence to support your claim
• Represent you in court, if necessary

If you’re looking for a qualified bus accident lawyer in Riverside, The Dominguez Firm can help. Our experienced lawyers have successfully helped injury accident victims recover the maximum compensation possible, let us do the same for you.

Contact the Riverside, CA, personal injury team at The Dominguez Firm at 800-818-1818 for a free consultation today.