Los Angeles Bus Accident Lawyer

Bus Accident Lawyer Los Angeles

Hurt on a Bus, or Hit by One, in Los Angeles?

You paid your fare and held the rail. Or you were in a crosswalk with the light, in the bike lane, or waiting at a red in your own car. Then a bus operator made a mistake, and now you are dealing with hospital bills, missed shifts, and a claims office that wants a quick answer.

If you are looking for a Los Angeles bus accident lawyer, Ravan Law represents people seriously hurt in bus accidents across Los Angeles County, including cases against public transit agencies. These claims have strict rules and a six-month deadline, and we take them on.

Two rules set a bus accident claim apart from a car accident claim. A bus company that carries passengers for a fare owes them a higher duty of care than an ordinary driver owes anyone. And when the bus belongs to a public agency, a written claim must be presented within six months, long before the two-year deadline most people have heard about.

Call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.

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Who We Represent After a Bus Accident

A bus crash injures people in four different positions, and the law treats them differently.

• Passengers. Riders thrown from a seat or off their feet by a hard stop or a collision, hurt while boarding or stepping off, or injured when a ramp, lift, or wheelchair securement failed. Passengers are owed the highest duty of care.
• Pedestrians. People struck in a crosswalk by a turning bus or at a stop. Vehicle Code 21950 requires a driver to yield to a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk, and it applies to bus operators like every other driver.
• Cyclists and scooter riders clipped by a bus crossing the bike lane to reach a stop, or hit by a right turn.
• Drivers and passengers in other vehicles. Our car accident page covers the insurance rules that also apply to your claim.

When a bus accident takes a life, Code of Civil Procedure 377.60 allows certain family members, including a spouse, a domestic partner, and children, to bring a wrongful death claim.

Bus Accident Attorney Los Angeles: Which Bus Hit You, and Who Gets the Claim

The first thing we work out is who runs the bus. Each public operator in Los Angeles County is its own entity with its own claim process, and a claim sent to the wrong one protects nothing against the right one.

Metro Bus Accident Claims

LA Metro runs Metro bus lines on Wilshire Boulevard, Vermont Avenue, and Van Nuys Boulevard, plus the G Line busway between Chatsworth and North Hollywood and the J Line between El Monte and Harbor Gateway through Downtown Los Angeles. A Metro bus accident claim goes to LACMTA on Metro’s own Claims for Damages form. Metro states that completed forms are accepted only in person or by mail, at LACMTA Legal Services, One Gateway Plaza, MS: PL4, Los Angeles, CA 90012, and that claims received by email will be rejected. Our guide on how to file a claim against LA Metro after an injury covers the form.

LADOT DASH and Commuter Express

DASH neighborhood buses and Commuter Express routes are services of the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation, not Metro. A claim arising from one is a claim against the City, filed with the Office of the City Clerk online at claims.lacity.org, in person, or by mail to 200 N. Spring Street, Room 395. See our guide to filing a claim against the City of Los Angeles.

Big Blue Bus, Culver CityBus, Long Beach Transit, and Foothill Transit

Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus and the municipally owned Culver CityBus are city bus lines, so the claim is against that city. Long Beach Transit has its own board of directors, appointed by the Mayor of Long Beach. Foothill Transit is a joint powers authority, so the claim is against the authority, not a member city.

School Bus Accident Claims and LAUSD

A school district is its own public entity. If your child was hurt on an LAUSD bus, or struck by one, the claim must reach the district within six months, and your child’s age does not pause that deadline. Under Vehicle Code 22112, the driver must run the flashing red lights and stop arm while loading or unloading, and at a stop without a traffic signal or officer must escort pupils in prekindergarten through eighth grade across the road. Under Vehicle Code 22454, other drivers must stop for a school bus showing its flashing red lights. A driver who passes that bus and hits a child is a separate, private defendant.

Private Charter and Tour Bus Accidents

Charter coaches, sightseeing buses, and airport shuttles are private businesses. In California, companies that carry passengers for hire in charter or round-trip sightseeing service operate under authority from the California Public Utilities Commission. The claim is against the company, its driver, and its insurer, and the two-year deadline under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 generally applies. Federal rules require for-hire passenger carriers operating across state lines in vehicles seating 16 or more to carry at least $5,000,000 in financial responsibility (49 CFR 387.33).

Some public systems hire private companies to drive or maintain their buses. When that is the case, the contractor is a private defendant with its own insurer, and the agency is still on the six-month clock. We identify both before we file anything.

The Common Carrier Duty of Care: Why a Bus Passenger’s Claim Is Different

An ordinary driver must use ordinary care (Civil Code 1714). A bus company carrying paying passengers is held to more.

Civil Code 2100 states that a carrier of persons for reward “must use the utmost care and diligence for their safe carriage, must provide everything necessary for that purpose, and must exercise to that end a reasonable degree of skill.” California’s civil jury instruction on the point (CACI No. 902) tells jurors that a common carrier must use “the highest care and the vigilance of a very cautious person.” The California Supreme Court applied this duty to a public transit district in Lopez v. Southern California Rapid Transit District (1985) 40 Cal.3d 780.

What the Higher Duty Changes in Practice

In an ordinary negligence case, the question is whether the driver acted as a reasonably careful driver would. For a passenger, the question is whether the carrier did everything that human care, vigilance, and foresight reasonably could do. Conduct that might pass as ordinary driving can fall short of that: pulling away while an older rider is still walking to a seat, or closing the doors on someone stepping down. The duty reaches past driving, too. A carrier can be liable for an assault by one passenger on another when, using the highest care, it should have known the attack was reasonably likely and could have prevented or reduced the harm (CACI No. 908).

The Limits of the Duty

A common carrier is not an insurer of its passengers’ safety, and the heightened duty is owed to passengers only. If you were walking, cycling, or driving, yours is an ordinary negligence claim, and it can be just as strong. A bus operator who runs a red light is negligent under any standard.

The Six-Month Government Claim for a Public Bus Accident

Metro, LADOT, Big Blue Bus, Culver CityBus, Foothill Transit, and school districts are public entities. A public entity is liable when its employee negligently operates a motor vehicle on the job (Vehicle Code 17001, Government Code 815.2). But Government Code 945.4 bars any lawsuit for money damages until a written claim has been presented to the entity and acted on.

Under Government Code 911.2, that claim must be presented no later than six months after the injury. What happens next depends on the agency’s response.

The two-year deadline does not extend the six-month claim, and a child’s age does not pause it. Late-claim relief may be available under Government Code 911.4 and 911.6, which requires the entity to grant the application where the injured person was a minor for the whole six-month period, but the application must still be made within one year. One bus accident can also put you on both tracks at once: a six-month claim against the transit agency and a two-year claim against the driver who cut the bus off.

Government Code 910 lists what the claim must contain. For a bus accident we add the route, the bus number, the direction of travel, the stop, and the time, because that is how the agency finds the video. Our government claims page explains every step in depth.

Bus Accident Evidence: On-Board Video and Operator Records Do Not Wait

A bus is a heavily recorded vehicle. Metro buses and stations are equipped with cameras. Agencies keep video on retention schedules, and those schedules do not wait for a claim to be reviewed. This is the evidence we go after first.

• On-board and exterior video, which can show whether you were seated, holding on, or still walking when the bus moved, and what the light and the crosswalk looked like.
• The operator’s incident report, dispatch records, and vehicle data: time, speed, braking, door activity, and location.
• Operator records: training, certification, prior incidents, and the work schedule for that shift.
• Maintenance and inspection records for brakes, doors, ramps, and lifts. Civil Code 2101 requires a carrier to provide vehicles that are safe and fit for their purpose.
• The police report. LAPD takes reports on city streets within Los Angeles, the California Highway Patrol on freeways and in unincorporated areas, and the Sheriff’s Department or a city police department elsewhere.

We send a written preservation demand to the operator right away. For public operators, records can also be requested under the California Public Records Act (Government Code 7920.000 and following), and once a lawsuit is filed we can subpoena what was not produced. See why time matters after an injury.

Common Causes of Bus Accidents in Los Angeles

Most bus injury claims come from a short list of failures.

• • Moving before passengers are secure: pulling from the stop while a rider is paying or walking to a seat.
  • Hard braking and sudden swerves, often from following too closely or driving too fast for traffic.

• Door, ramp, and lift failures.

• Turns across crosswalks and bike lanes, red lights, and distraction.
• Poor maintenance: worn brakes, broken handrails, slick floors.
• Another driver’s negligence. A car that cuts off a bus can injure standing passengers without touching the bus. That driver can be liable, and the carrier may be as well.
• Dangerous stops and roads. A broken curb at a stop can make the public entity that owns the street a defendant under Government Code 835.

Bus Accident Injuries

Passengers on a transit bus often stand, and when a bus stops short they hit poles, seat frames, and the floor. Pedestrians and cyclists have nothing between them and the vehicle. Serious cases involve traumatic brain injury, hip, pelvis, wrist, and shoulder fractures (especially in older riders who fall in the aisle), spinal cord injury and paralysis, crush injuries and amputations, and wrongful death.

We value these cases over a lifetime, with a life-care plan and an analysis of lost earning capacity. Read more about catastrophic injury, wrongful death, pedestrian accident, and bicycle accident claims.

What Compensation Can a Bus Accident Claim Recover?

Compensation falls into two categories of compensatory damages.

Economic damages: emergency care, surgery, and rehabilitation; future medical care; lost wages; lost earning capacity; in-home care; and damaged property.

Non-economic damages: physical pain, emotional distress, scarring and disfigurement, and the loss of the activities and relationships that made up your life. See our explainer on economic and non-economic damages.

Punitive damages are different. Government Code 818 bars them against a public entity. Against a private bus company they require clear and convincing evidence of malice, oppression, or fraud under Civil Code 3294.

California follows pure comparative fault: your compensation is reduced by your share of fault, not eliminated. Expect the argument that you should have been seated or holding on. A passenger owes only reasonable care, while the carrier owes the highest care (CACI No. 906), and the video usually shows which one fell short.

What to Do After a Bus Accident

1. Get medical care the same day and say you were hurt on or by a bus. Head and spine injuries often do not show at the scene.
2. Report it to the operator before the bus leaves, and get the police report number if officers come.
3. Write down the bus details: the agency, the route or line, the bus number painted on the vehicle, the direction, the stop or cross street, and the exact time.
4. Keep proof you were a passenger: your fare card, pass, transfer, or app receipt.
5. Photograph the bus, the stop, and your injuries, and get names and numbers for other passengers.
6. Do not give a recorded statement or sign a release for the agency’s claims office or a bus company’s insurer. You are not required to.
7. If you were driving, Vehicle Code 16000 requires a DMV report within 10 days when anyone is injured or killed, or property damage exceeds $1,000.

Then call us. Our video explainer on what to do if you’ve been injured due to a government entity covers the first days.

How We Handle a Bus Accident Case

1. Free consultation. We tell you whether there is a claim worth pursuing, including when the answer is no.
2. Identify the operator. We confirm which agency or company ran the bus, whether a contractor was involved, and whether another driver or a road owner shares responsibility.
3. Preserve the evidence. We send preservation demands for video, vehicle data, and operator records.
4. Present the government claim inside the six-month window, to the right office, in the form that office accepts.
5. Document the injury, with future care projected in serious cases.
6. Demand and negotiation. Most claims resolve by settlement.
7. Litigation where needed. If the claim is rejected or the offer does not reflect the harm, we file suit in Superior Court within the deadline in Government Code 945.6 and prepare your bus accident case for trial.

We work from our office on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles. You work with us directly, and we keep you updated at every stage. For timing, see how long a personal injury case takes in California.

Bus Accident and Public Vehicle Results

In his first year of practice, attorney Ted H. Ravan obtained more than $1 million for his clients. Clients rate our firm 4.9 on Google across 65 reviews. Every settlement depends on the injury, the evidence, the available insurance, and the facts of the claim.

Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.

Why Our Firm Takes Bus Accident Cases

Ted H. Ravan first became involved with personal injury law when his grandfather was in a near-fatal incident involving a city-operated bus.

A claim against a government agency follows its own rules, its own forms, and its own deadline. That is why our firm takes bus accident cases.

Ted H. Ravan, a Los Angeles bus accident attorney, studied political science at UC San Diego and earned his law degree at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he gave more than 100 volunteer hours to the campus free legal clinic. Read more about attorney Ted H. Ravan.

Bus Accident Lawyer Los Angeles County: Where We Take Cases

We represent people hurt in bus accidents throughout Los Angeles County: on Metro lines along Wilshire, Vermont, and Van Nuys Boulevards, on the G Line and the J Line, on DASH routes, and on the municipal systems in Santa Monica, Culver City, and Long Beach. For other injury claims, see our personal injury practice.

Speak With a Los Angeles Bus Accident Lawyer Before Six Months Pass

If you or someone in your family was seriously hurt on a bus or by one, two clocks are already running. The video is on a retention schedule, and if the bus belonged to Metro, a city, a transit authority, or a school district, the six-month deadline under Government Code 911.2 began on the day of the injury.

Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation with a Los Angeles bus accident lawyer. We will identify who ran the bus, confirm the date your claim is due, and move to preserve the evidence. No fee unless we win.

6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048

Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.

Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.