School Bus Accident – Can I sue The School District?

The last thing a parent expects after seeing their child off to school is receiving a call informing them that their child has been involved in an accident. School buses are among the safest transportation modes for schooling-going kids.

But unfortunately, they can sometimes get into an accident, or a student could suffer an accident in one even when the bus itself doesn’t get into an accident.

School Bus Accidents Rare

According to a report by the NHTSA, there were approximately 1,113 school transportation-related fatalities between 2008 and 2017. Of the fatalities, only 10 percent were occupants of a school bus. This number leaves out the thousands of others who suffer minor to life-threatening in school bus-related accidents.

If another entity is responsible for a school bus accident, an injury lawsuit will take the same course as in any other accident. But things might be a little different for accidents where the faulty party is the bus driver or other school employees tasked with ensuring kids' safety while in transit to and from school.

Sovereign Immunity

The school district is a governmental organization, and its employee’s government employees. Being a government entity, the school district and its employees enjoy sovereign immunity, which protects government entities against lawsuits from citizens. This doctrine has its roots in traditional monarchies where the king or queen had immunity from lawsuits filed by their subjects.

There are several circumstances where the school district may have immunity from liability, for example, a situation where no one was at fault or if the student was the instigator of the incident leading up to their injury. This immunity extends even to injuries caused by an employee if it was not the intention of the employee to cause harm.

Exemptions from Sovereign Liability

Sovereign immunity does not protect the school district from all types of liability. If an accident is severe or results in substantial costs in terms of hospital bills, or pain and suffering, it may be possible to recover compensation for the damages.

In most cases, only injuries that pass a certain threshold qualify for a waiver of governmental immunity on the school district. But even then, the accident resulting in the injury has to result from negligence or willful conduct of the bus driver or another school district employee.

Negligence can occur in many ways. However, some of the most common cases where negligence becomes a factor are when a bus is in disrepair, there’s apathy toward making the bus safe for students, or the bus driver pulls out of a stop before a student gets to their seat.

Suppose the actions leading to the accident that caused harm to your child were intentional. The school board might be liable for the damages, especially if there lacked proper background checks when recruiting the person responsible for the intentional accident. But the consequences for intentional tort don’t end with payment of damages; they can include criminal prosecution of the responsible employee.

Work With a Lawyer

“Under normal circumstances, minor injuries such as scrapes and bruises, soft tissue injuries, or simple fractures may not pass the threshold for voiding sovereign immunity,” says accident lawyer Chuck Boyk.

However, if such injuries are suffered under circumstances where there is sufficient evidence to prove negligence, you may have a chance of recovering damages for such. However, it is best to consult a lawyer before initiating lawsuits against a school district.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes