Many people rely on buses to get them from one point to another every day. This could be anything from a morning commute, touring a new city, or a long-distance trip. While travel by bus is generally very safe, unfortunately, many buses will get into accidents, and some of the passengers will get injured. When this happens to you, you may be angry, scared, frustrated, or all three. Worse still, you will probably be staring down enormous medical expenses to pay for serious injuries.
Fortunately, our lawyers can help. We are experienced attorneys who have represented bus accident victims in the past, and we can lend our experience to helping you with your case. We will be in your corner from start to finish and will fight hard for you to get the financial compensation you deserve after an accident.
To get a free case review from our bus accident lawyers, call Howe Law at (844) 876-4357.
Causes of Bus Accidents in Hendersonville, TN
Bus accidents can happen for any number of reasons. However, our bus accident lawyers have zeroed in on several key causes of bus accidents that tend to pop up in bus accident lawsuits. We will go into some of those causes below, but do not be concerned if you feel your bus accident happened for a different reason – our lawyers can still help either way.
Driver Error
One of the most common causes of bus accidents is careless drivers. The legal term for carelessness is “negligence.” This means that someone did not act how they were supposed to, given the circumstances, and because of that improper action, someone else got hurt. Negligence is very important to personal injury lawsuits of all kinds because you need to prove that the defendant was negligent to be able to recover damages from them.
A driver can be negligent in many ways. A common way that drivers are negligent is by ignoring basic traffic laws. For example, a bus driver is negligent if they speed or ignore stop signs. Additionally, if a driver does not act as a reasonable driver under the circumstances, that is also negligence. For example, if a driver aggressively switches lanes over and over, while that may not be against the law, it is still dangerous behavior that can harm others. Finally, drunk or impaired driving is also negligence.
There are other ways that a bus driver is likely to be negligent. For example, bus drivers work long hours, so it is not a wild assumption to think that some of them may get tired behind the wheel. Driving a bus is a strenuous task, so a tired driver is very likely to get into an accident. Alternatively, driving a large bus takes different skills than driving an ordinary vehicle. As such, bus drivers receive special training. If a driver did not get this training and got into an accident, they could be liable as well as their employer.
Problems with the Bus
Another way that bus accidents happen is when something goes wrong with the bus itself. This could be something wrong with the design of the vehicle, such that even if it is “perfectly” put together, something bad still happens, or it could be a problem that arose during maintenance or the initial construction of the bus. For example, an improperly installed axle may cause the driver to lose control of the bus, resulting in a crash. In a situation like that, whoever worked on the bus may be liable for your injuries.
First Steps After a Bus Accident in Hendersonville, TN
There are important steps to take right after a bus accident happens to both make sure you are safe and potentially build a stronger bus accident lawsuit should you choose to pursue one. Most of these steps will apply if you or a loved one ever find yourself in a bus accident.
Get Medical Care
After a bus crash, the first thing to do is to check that you are physically okay and get treatment if you are not. Let the first responders who come to the crash scene examine you and follow all of their instructions. If you go to a hospital, then there are no further steps to take at the accident because you are going to undergo medical treatment. However, if you are permitted to stay, you should proceed to what comes next.
That being said, you may want to go see a medical professional even if first responders say you are okay right after the accident. This is because some injuries may take time to reveal themselves and may not show symptoms until days or even weeks later.
Get Information
If you can stay near the accident, your next objective is to get all the information you can. Take numerous photos and videos. Write down notes. Interview any witnesses and record what they say. This information can be extremely valuable to our bus accident lawyers in forming a case for you, especially if any information gets distorted by time or someone tries to hide what actually happened.
Get Legal Assistance
After the initial bus accident has wound down, it is time to think about whether you are going to file a lawsuit or not. The sooner you contact legal counsel, the better. Not only does this let our lawyers start preparing your case for longer, but there are laws in place that make it so you only have a limited time to file a lawsuit after you get injured.
Talk with Our Hendersonville, TN Bus Accident Lawyers Today
Our bus accident lawyers from Howe Law can talk about your case when you call (844) 876-4357.
