We rely on the bus to get around town or to take longer trips out of town in peace and comfort. Unfortunately, negligent drivers on the road or even behind the wheel of the bus might cause injurious accidents.
After a bus accident, speak to an attorney about getting financial compensation for your injuries. While bus drivers are often at fault for these accidents, their employer might be vicariously liable, and other drivers might have also contributed to the crash. Damages in bus collision cases tend to be significant because plaintiffs often experience severe injuries. Damages for medical costs, pain, suffering, and more should be accounted for, among others. To start your claim, talk to a lawyer and prepare a formal complaint. You will need a lot of information about the case in addition to evidence backing up your claims. Evidence might be found around the area of the crash or from other sources.
Start your claim with a free case review by contacting the Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502 and speak to our Chicago bus accident lawyers.
Who Should Be Held Responsible for a Bus Accident in Waukegan, IL?
Bus accidents often involve a whole host of people. Figuring out who should be held responsible for the crash and who is another victim may be harder than you anticipate. Bus drivers should definitely be examined for liability, but other drivers on the road and bus companies in charge of the bus might be responsible, too.
Bus Drivers
Our bus accident attorneys will of course help you review the bus driver’s actions to determine if they are responsible for the crash. Bus drivers are often at the heart of bus accident cases since they are in charge of the bus and the safety of passengers. While mistakes on the road are common for all drivers, they can be especially dangerous when made by bus drivers.
If the bus driver is speeding, they might be unable to stop in time to avoid a crash. Buses are very big and extremely heavy, and they will often not stop on a dime. If a bus driver is speeding, they put bus passengers and other drivers on the road at risk.
In other cases, bus drivers cause collisions because they are distracted by things like cell phones or even passengers on the bus. While bus drivers should not be showing up to work intoxicated, it unfortunately happens sometimes, and drunk bus drivers cause bad accidents.
Bus Companies
The bus company or bus line that hired the bus driver may also be responsible. Under the legal doctrine known as respondeat superior, an employer can be held vicariously liable for injuries caused by a negligent employee as long as the employee acted within the scope of their typical job duties. This often includes acts of negligence but not criminal or intentional acts of harm.
Private bus lines might be liable, but so might public ones. For example, in the Waukegan area, bus lines from Metra, PACE, and the RTA might be involved in a crash. These entities may be public or quasi-public, and suing them is like trying to sue the government. As such, our team must work quickly to submit a notice of your claim to the proper authorities.
Other Drivers
Sometimes, the bus driver and their employer are either not responsible or only partly responsible. During the accident, other drivers on the road might have negligently contributed to the crash. For example, if another driver crashed into the bus, but the bus driver was distracted by their cell phone and could not avoid the crash, both might be liable for your injuries. We should thoroughly review things like security camera footage and details from witnesses to determine if anyone other than the bus driver is responsible.
Possible Damages in a Waukegan, IL Bus Accident Case
Damages in your bus accident lawsuit might be much higher than you realize. Bus accident victims often deal with painful and expensive injuries, and their medical bills may be quite high. On top of that, the time they spend recovering might take them away from their jobs, and they might lose a lot of income. We must also evaluate the value of personal belongings you lost in the crash. Valuable items like laptops, tablets, wedding rings, watches, and more should be accounted for.
The accident’s impact might ripple across your life in more ways than just financial. You should include damages for pain, suffering, humiliation, and other emotional and psychological trauma from the crash. People often regard bus accidents as severe near-death experiences. As such, victims are haunted by memories of the crash for years. Your suffering should be compensated fairly.
How to Begin Your Bus Accident Claim in Waukegan, IL
Talk to an attorney as soon as possible to start a claim for your bus accident injuries. According to 735 I.L.C.S. § 5/13-202, you have 2 years from the date of your injuries to file a lawsuit. Considering how much time people spend recovering and mulling over their legal options before submitting a claim, this is a very tight deadline.
Your claim begins with a formal complaint filed in court. The complaint is a formal legal document that must contain specific information and adhere to rigid formatting requirements. We must include information about you, the defendant, how the crash happened, the extent of your injuries and damages, and what kind of relief or compensation you want. If any details are missing, the court might reject the complaint.
We must also have sufficient evidence to back up your claim when we file the complaint. Even though we will not present evidence in court for some time, we should have some at the very beginning when we draft the complaint. While we do not need all possible evidence, we should have enough to show the court that you have a valid cause of action.
Contact Our Bus Accident Lawyers in Waukegan, IL for Help
Start your claim with a free case review by contacting the Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502 and speak to our bus accident lawyers.
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