Boulder Bus Accident Attorneys

Contributors to Bus Accidents

A wide array of parties might be liable for your injuries, whether you were a passenger, or another driver involved in a bus accident. Determining which of them has responsibility for paying damages to victims can be complicated, especially because separate parties may own, operate, and maintain a single bus. In our experience at the Tenge Law Firm, LLC, any of the following parties may bear some or all of the fault for causing a bus accident, and some or all of the liability for paying for the damages it caused:

• Bus drivers who break traffic laws and put their passengers and the public at risk by speeding, driving while distracted, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or driving while fatigued.
• Bus owners who have responsibility for maintaining buses in proper working condition and hiring and training competent drivers to operate them.
• Maintenance companies who have been contracted to maintain and owe a duty to bus owners and the public to do their jobs with sufficient care.
• Bus or bus part manufacturers or retailers who have an obligation to ensure their products are safe for their intended use, and not defective in their design, performance, or lack of adequate warnings.
• Other drivers who fail to operate their own vehicles in a safe and responsible manner, and thereby cause an accident with a bus.
• Government entities who are responsible for designing and maintaining roads, crosswalks, and other public ways in safe conditions.

The Type of Claim Can You File

As we mentioned earlier, determining who operated the bus, as well as who was at fault, is important to understanding what type of claim you can file. Because the majority of buses in Boulder are operated by public agencies like the RTD or BVSD, you may be looking at a government claim. In the state of Colorado, accidents involving government vehicles only allow you up to 180 days from the date of the accident to file a claim, as opposed to an accident with a commercial vehicle or passenger driver, which allows up to three years. If you were involved in a Boulder public bus accident, you should not hesitate to contact the Tenge Law Firm, LLC as soon as possible to review your case and begin the filing process.

However, even if your accident involved a private company, you should also avoid delaying and contact a Boulder auto accident attorney immediately after your accident. We will need time to collect evidence, determine who is liable, review your medical records and injuries, and negotiate on your behalf with the at-fault party’s insurance company. In addition, we will also need to calculate the costs of your accident and determine the amount of money you can recover in a personal injury claim.

Bus Accident Damages

Damages for injuries sustained in an accident that was someone else’s fault can be divided into two basic categories: compensatory damages and exemplary (or “punitive”) damages. Compensatory damages aim to compensate the victim for expenses directly related to the injury. They may include:

Exemplary damages, on the other hand, aim to punish the party responsible for causing the accident and injury. These damages are less common and will typically only be awarded under Colorado law when that party acted with malice or in a “willful and wanton” manner.

The Importance of Having Experienced Legal Counsel

Colorado is a “modified comparative negligence” state. This means that once the court (or a jury) determines that a defendant, or defendants, are legally responsible for causing the plaintiff’s injuries, the court must then assign a percentage of fault to each party in the lawsuit. If the court finds the plaintiff partially to blame for his or her own injury, then the court reduces the damage award by that percentage. But, if the plaintiff’s percentage of fault rises above 50 percent, the plaintiff cannot recover any damages at all.

Because of this rule, defendants and their insurers have a strong incentive to pin as much of the blame for an accident on the victim as possible. They may argue that another driver caused the accident or that a bus passenger was acting negligently. Sometimes insurance adjusters get victims to make statements or admissions of fault while the victims are still recovering from their injuries, knowing it’s a vulnerable time and that the victims’ guards will be down. This is why it can be critically important for victims to retain an attorney who is experienced in guiding clients through the minefield of potential mistakes that could result in them losing their right to damages.