How To Make A Bus Accident Claim
This guide discusses the process of making a bus accident claim, providing the eligibility criteria to claim personal injury compensation if you were hurt while on a bus.
Within this guide, we have provided example scenarios of what type of accidents could happen while on a bus and what injuries could be sustained. When making any kind of personal injury claim it is vital that you can back up your case, therefore we provide a section on the evidence you can collect after a public transport accident.
Next, you can take a look at how compensation for a bus accident claim payout is calculated before finding out how an expert solicitor from our panel could offer you their service under No Win No Fee terms.
How To Make A Bus Accident Claims Guide
Furthermore, we have a dedicated team of advisors ready to give round-the-clock advice and a free case assessment. Their support is available to everyone, so please come and speak to us by:
- Calling 020 3870 4868.
- Asking about a claim online.
- Starting a conversation on live chat below.
Select A Section
- How To Make A Bus Accident Claim
- Types Of Bus Accident Injuries
- How To Prove A Bus Accident Claim
- Bus Accident Claim Payouts
- How Do No Win No Fee Bus Injury Claims Work?
- Learn More About Making A Bus Accident Claim
How To Make A Bus Accident Claim
When on a bus accidents could happen on the vehicle such as a slip and fall, or you could be involved in a road traffic accident while travelling as a passenger.
When travelling on a bus, you are owed a duty of care by the bus operator, bus driver, as well as other road users. Road users are required to navigate roads in a way that keeps themselves and others safe from injury or damage They can achieve this by following rules and guidance found in the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code.
Bus operators are parties who control a public space, so their responsibilities are laid out by The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. The Act notes that people or organisations controlling a space must take all steps necessary to keep visitors reasonably safe on the premises.
To be eligible to make a road traffic accident claim or a public liability claim, you will need to ensure that you can satisfy the below criteria:
- A third party owed a duty of care i.e. a driver or bus operator
- They breached their duty.
- This led to an accident that caused physical and/or mental harm.
One further criterion is important to note. The Limitation Act 1980 sets a time limit for starting a personal injury claim, meaning a claim must begin within three years of the accident date. While this is the case for almost all claims, exceptions can apply to the limitation period.
Please get in touch with our advisors if you have any questions about proving the validity of your bus accident claim or to find out how long you have to initiate proceedings.
Types Of Bus Accident Injuries
There are numerous possible examples of bus accidents or road traffic accidents, including the following:
- A car brakes in front of a bus, and the bus driver is distracted and does not see this causing them to crash into the car in front. The force of the crash causes the passengers to suffer a neck injury. They are later diagnosed with whiplash.
- A bus operator fails to fix a faulty handrail on the stairs. As a passenger is coming down the stairs they grab onto the handrail, however, it comes away from the side causing the passenger to fall all the way down. They sustain a head injury.
- The driver closes the bus’s pneumatic doors as a passenger is still getting on. The passenger tries to avoid the door, but it shuts onto one hand, inflicting a serious crush injury to their hand.
- A HGV driver goes through a red light at speed, crashing into the side of a bus crossing a junction. Passengers are thrown from their seats, suffering broken bones from the impact and scarring from shards of the smashed window.
Regardless of whether your experience was exactly like any of these examples, you may have grounds for a bus accident claim if a third party was at fault for your injuries. Get in touch today to tell our advisors about your situation, and we can explain if you could seek compensation.
How To Prove A Bus Accident Claim
Having valid grounds for a claim is important, but they will only stand up in a case with relevant evidence supporting them. For a bus accident claim, you might be able to collect any of the following:
- Camera footage. Buses often have one or both of a dashcam or an internal CCTV system. You can request footage of yourself from the bus operator.
- Photographs of the accident scene and its cause.
- Medical records.
- A diary charting your symptoms and treatment.
- Witness details.
Our panel’s experienced road traffic accident solicitors can help claimants with evidence collection so as much proof can be presented for the case as possible. Chat with our advisors to find out more about this service and learn where you can look for relevant documents.
Bus Accident Claim Payouts
A successful bus accident claim will bring about a settlement potentially split between two heads of claim.
The first head of claim is general damages, compensating the claimant for the physical and mental harm inflicted by injuries.
If general damages is awarded, special damages could be included to account for financial losses such as lost wages from being unable to work, or expenditures made necessary due to injury.
We have assembled a table of guideline compensation brackets that could make up the general damages head of a claim. The figures come from the Judicial College Guidelines, a document legal professionals may use alongside medical evidence during a case to value injuries.
Compensation table
Please note that this table is only a guide and the settlement reached in a bus accident claim will depend on the case’s unique features. The whiplash entries are fixed sums from the tariff contained in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021.
INJURY | SEVERITY | COMPENSATION | NOTES |
---|---|---|---|
Head | Moderate (i) | £150,110 to £219,070 | The injured person experiences moderate to severe intellect deficit, a significant risk of epilepsy, and no prospect of employment. |
Leg | Severe (i) | £96,250 to £135,920 | Most serious leg injuries, short of those that require amputation. |
Hand | Total Or Effective Loss Of One Hand | £96,160 to £109,650 | An example is all fingers and most of the palm being traumatically amputated. |
Back | Severe (ii) | £74,160 to £88,430 | Effects of such injuries include impaired bladder and bowel function and nerve root damage. |
Ankle | Very Severe | £50,060 to £69,700 | Bilateral ankle fractures leading to joint degeneration in a young person is an example of injuries in this bracket. |
Arm – Other | Injuries Resulting In Permanent And Substantial Disablement | £39,170 to £59,860 | One or both forearms are fractured seriously with residual disability continuing permanently. |
Facial Disfigurement | Significant Scarring | £9,110 to £30,090 | This bracket features cases where scarring can be seen at a conversational distance. |
Knee | Moderate (i) | £14,840 to £26,190 | Numerous injuries could appear in this bracket, including those exacerbating pre-existing conditions over many years. |
Whiplash | One or more whiplash injuries plus one or more minor psychological injuries. | £4,345 | More than 18 months, but not more than 24 months |
Whiplash | One or more whiplash injuries | £3,005 | More than 15 months, but not more than 18 months |
The Whiplash Reform Programme
If you have suffered a whiplash injury or other injuries as a driver or passenger in a vehicle after a road traffic accident that amount to £5,000 or less how you will now make your claim is set according to the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021 and the Whiplash Reform Programme. This may mean that you have to make your personal injury claim through a different avenue.
This means adult bus passengers making a claim for whiplash injuries or other minor injuries valued at £5,000 or below must claim in another way.
Get in touch with our advisors today to learn the details of the whiplash reforms and to discuss the general and special damages that could be included in your bus accident claim.
How Do No Win No Fee Bus Injury Claims Work?
If you have a legitimate bus accident claim, you could benefit from the professional guidance of an experienced personal injury solicitor from our panel. A solicitor could take on your case under No Win No Fee terms with a Conditional Fee Agreement.
This arrangement means you do not pay for your solicitor’s work:
- In advance;
- During the case;
- If the case does not win.
Your solicitor would collect a success fee if the case wins. This would be a percentage, legally capped by The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, of your compensation.
Talk To Our Specialist Team
Consult with our advisors if you have questions about making a bus accident claim. Should a case assessment show that you have a claim, a solicitor from our panel could take it from there.
There’s no obligation to start a claim when talking to us. You can get started right away through any of these routes:
- Call 020 3870 4868.
- Write to us about a claim online.
- Join us on live chat below.
Learn More About Making A Bus Accident Claim
We have several guides about road traffic accident claims, like the following:
- How to claim as the passenger in a car accident.
- Answering the question: ‘How long after an accident can you claim for whiplash?’.
- Making a car park accident claim.
You can also check out these resources:
- GOV.UK – Claiming Statutory Sick Pay.
- NHS – Request a copy of medical records.
- Think! – Road safety laws.
Thanks for reading this guide on making a bus accident claim. Please call or contact us online if there’s anything we can help you with.