According to the American School Bus Council, 26 million students ride a school bus each school day to and from class in the U.S. and most ride the bus twice a day. Students deserve a safe and reliable way to get to school, and school bus crash victims deserve justice.
The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles says that there were 1,014 school bus crashes reported in North Carolina in 2018. Out of those crashes five were fatal and 261 of them resulted in an injury of some sort.
Mecklenburg county had the most school bus crashes of any county in North Carolina with 203. Second was Wake county with a reported 118 school bus crashes. Durham county reported 50, Guilford county and Forsyth county both reported 43. Orange county reported 18.
Wake county reported 74 injuries as a result of the 118 reported crashes. Durham county reported 12 injuries as a result of the 50 reposted crashes. Orange county reported 4 injuries as a result of 18 crashes.
Representation for Accident Victims
Buses outweigh and out-size most vehicles, excluding other large trucks. Because of this, when another vehicle gets in a crash with a bus, the greater weight of the bus has a potential to crush a car upon impact and, depending on the circumstances of the accident and how fast each vehicle is going, chances are the passengers in the other vehicle will be seriously injured.
Treatment for school bus-related injuries may be expensive. Depending on the severity of a North Carolina school bus accident, the victim may require hospitalization and such medical care as surgery and/or rehabilitative therapy. An accident victim also may lose income while injured and unable to work. A bus accident victim who suffers a disabling injury may require ongoing medical care or personal assistance for years to come. There may also be permanent disfiguring scars.
These costs, past, current, and future, must be considered after suffering an injury in a school bus crash. If the school bus driver is at fault, all victims should be compensated for their pain and suffering accordingly.
Unfortunately, the system to recover compensation after a North Carolina school bus accident is complicated. Claims may generally be filed against the school bus driver in the North Carolina Industrial Commission. While some cases may settle, many have to be heard at a trial in front of an Industrial Commissioner. Compensation can be recovered from the state up to $1,000,000 per claim.
Maginnis Law’s head personal injury attorney, T. Shawn Howard, is experienced in handling school bus accident cases in which the school bus driver was at-fault for the accident. He has represented other North Carolinians in claims before the Industrial Commission.
If you or someone you know has been injured in a school bus accident due to the negligence of a school bus driver, please contact Maginnis Howard. Call us at (919) 526-0450 or visit our contact page to send a confidential message to our intake team.
Every client of our law firm gets personal contact from our attorneys. With us, you will have direct contact with one of our attorneys, not a paralegal or staff person.
