There are a few things to consider when injured as a result of a bus accident.  The first thing is that buses are “commercial” vehicles and usually have far more insurance coverage than ordinary passenger cars.  The second thing is that due to the size and force of a bus collision, typically the injuries we see are far worse than those involving passenger cars.  In a bus collision you may have been a passenger on a crowded bus and other passengers may be hurt, it may be chaotic and the injuries may be extensive.  That is why it is so important to get a New York bus accident attorney right away.  The last thing is that buses are sometimes owned by the City or State of New York and are therefore considered “municipal” entities.  This means that something called a notice of claim must be filed within 90 days from the time of the accident, which is a far shorter period of time than a normal car accident that could have up to a three year statute of limitations. At Uptown Injury Law, PLLC we have extensive experience fighting the City of New York and New York State, as well as the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and will put you in the best position to obtain maximum compensation after your bus accident.

After a bus accident there are some common sense things to do to protect you and your family following a serious motor vehicle accident. 

First, call 911, wait for the police at the scene and make sure to cooperate with them.  Second, if you are able, collect any identifying information about the other driver(s) and vehicle(s) involved, such as insurance information (insurance company & policy number), phone number of the drivers, addresses and email.  Do not in any circumstance let the other drivers leave the scene until the police arrive, and if they do make sure to take a photo/video of their vehicle and license plate number.  Make sure you also get the names and phone numbers of any witnesses and write down that information in a safe place. 

Second, seek medical treatment right away and make sure to complain to both the EMT’s/ambulance and hospital staff of all the parts of your body that are injured or were affected in the accident no matter how minor or trivial.  

Third, contact the insurance carrier of your vehicle to put them on notice of the accident.  Failing to do so may jeopardize your insurance coverage and violate the terms of your insurance policy.  One thing to NOT do however is to speak with or give any recorded or written statements to the insurance carriers of the other vehicles involved as they may use that information against you in order to escape responsibility for the accident and your injuries. 

Fourth, if you or a loved one was injured make sure to contact us in order to help you with your medical bills, insurance issues, medical treatment and to get you compensated for the injuries you suffered.  We are here to take the stress, anxiety and complicated process of obtaining fair compensation off your shoulders so you can focus on what matters: yourself!

Not always, but yes, most of the time the vehicle that rear-ends another is at-fault for causing the accident.  This is because in New York there is a presumption that when a vehicle impacts another stopped vehicle from the rear they are responsible for the accident.  That is, unless the driver of the rear-ending vehicle can come up with a “reasonable explanation” for striking the other in the back.  Some examples of a reasonable excuse for hitting another vehicle in the rear would be things like sliding on black ice where there was no warning of its’ presence on the road, sudden vision altering sun-glare that blocked the view of the driver or that the vehicle ahead of the offending vehicle stopped “abruptly”.  None of these excuses however usually work to get someone out of being held responsible for causing a rear-end collision, since the law in New York requires the operator of a motor vehicle to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle they are following and to “see what there is to be seen” ahead of them in order to prevent accidents (and injuries) from occurring.

Even in the case of being a partially at-fault driver you may still have a good chance of recovering damages following a bus accident.  In New York we use a “comparative negligence”, also known as comparative fault or contributory negligence, which means that both parties in a personal injury case are somewhat at fault.  For instance, let’s say a jury awarded $1,000,000.00 to the driver of a motor vehicle injured in a 2-car accident, but found that driver and the driver of the other vehicle each 50% to blame.  In that instance even though the jury awarded $1 million dollars, the injured party would only recover $500,000.00 since they were found to be 50% responsible for causing the crash, thus appropriately would only recover 50% of the money damages awarded.

Whiplash is a term used to describe soft tissues injuries that occur as a result of the head and neck snapping back and forth rapidly in a bus accident.  These types of injuries usually do not involve fractured bones, but can still be extremely serious.  The typical types of injuries we see in whiplash cases involve the head, neck an shoulders, and may initially be diagnosed by a doctor as a sprain or strain.  In some instances you may not experience any symptoms in the hours or even days after an accident, or they might manifest themselves as aches and pains, soreness or stiffness, commonly in the neck and shoulders.  But as time goes on, whiplash victims may begin to experience much more severe pain and if an injury lingers it could turn out to be “chronic” pain, or even involve herniated cervical discs, annular tears, labral tears, rotator cuff injuries or damage to the nerves, ligaments and tendons that might require surgery. Usually, the herniated discs or annular tears are discovered months later on an MRI or CAT scan (they don’t show up on X-rays) and will first be treated conservatively with using a combination of physical therapy, chiropractic adjustments and steroid injections.  Should a disc injury to the spine cause progressive pain or functional impairments they too may require spinal surgery such as disc decompression or spinal fusion surgery. 

A traumatic brain injury or “TBI” as it is commonly referred, involves any direct or indirect trauma to the brain caused by some physical force.  Direct trauma would include blunt force trauma or penetrating skull injury, and indirect trauma or “secondary” injury would involve the body’s natural healing process, which sometimes causes too much swelling in and around the brain and vital structures that supports it leading to ischemia (lack of blood flow and oxygen) and blood clots.  Traumatic brain injuries can definitely be caused by a bus accident or any type of injury caused by an acute physical or forceful trauma to the head and brain.  These forces may cause hematomas to develop, severe swelling/edema, increase the intracranial pressure, cause cerebral vasospasm, infections inside the brain, even epilepsy, coma, paralysis and death.  While traumatic brain injuries do occur as a result of bus accidents, they also can happen by slips and falls, recreational accidents (bicycle crashes, playground equipment failures, skiing accidents, etc.), assaults and batteries or even as a result of medical malpractice.  The effects of a TBI on each person varies from mild to severe and can include a wide array of symptoms such as short (or long) term memory loss, vision impairment, loss of ability to concentrate, difficulty communicating, disorientation, seizure disorders, depression, anxiety and/or impaired judgment.  TBI’s can also call muscle spasms, speech impairments, smell or taste impairment, headaches, fatigue, loss of balance, chronic pain,, anxiety, depression and mood swings

First and foremost, the physical force applied by a commercial vehicle (which may weight 10 times that of a passenger car) can be massive, often involving catastrophic damage to passenger vehicles and their occupants. 

Secondly, if a culpable party is a commercial truck driver / commercial carrier they will carry at least $750,000.00 of insurance as required by Federal Law, however typically we see commercial trucking insurance policies well over a million dollars.  Because commercial trucking cases a typically more complex, involving both Federal and New York State laws, we always recommend contacting an experienced trucking accident attorney right away so that you and your family are protected and put in the best possible place to get maximum compensation for your injuries.

No.  Never do this.  As New York City attorneys representing bus accident victims for over 15 years, we have seen countless occasions where adverse insurance companies (and the adjusters who work for them) attempt to reach out to our clients in order to deceive them, rip them off and flat out cheat them out of the money they are owed.  Even if the insurance adjuster calls and seems “friendly” they are NOT your friend and are only doing this to protect the interest of their insured and the insurance company’s bottom line.  In bus accident cases, the other driver’s insurance agent is likely to call you to try to get you to give a “recorded statement” about how the accident happened before you have even had time to hire an attorney. Don’t do it! They are not doing this to help you, but rather will try to damage your case.  Instead, contact us so that we can talk to the insurance company and the insurance adjuster on your behalf.

At Uptown Injury Law, PLLC  we review insurance policies every time our client is injured in a bus, car,, truck or motorcycle accident.  We know the best insurance carries and the ins & outs of insurance coverage, especially the things such as “SUM” coverage which are so critical or motorists, yet so many times people fail to get this added to their policy.  Unfortunately, the majority of our clients fail to purchase SUM coverage, which can make a MASSIVE difference in the amount of compensation you or your loved ones receive after a serious injury in a car, commercial trucking or bus crash. “SUM” coverage, which stands for “Supplemental Underinsurance Coverage”, will only minimally increase your insurance premium, yet the protection it gives is HUGE.  So how does it work? Let’s say you’ve purchased a good liability auto policy with $100,000 of coverage. This means that if you hurt someone with your car, and it is your fault, the victims of YOUR negligence can get up to $100,000. But what if you or your family is seriously injured by the fault of another motorist? And what if that other at-fault motorist had only $25,000 (the minimum in New York is $25,000 per injured person and $50,000 per accident) in liability coverage? Well, your own $100,000 in liability coverage won’t help you at all. That would cover only someone injured by your driving errors. All you or your family member can get in coverage is the $25,000 the at-fault driver had UNLESS you had the foresight to purchase “SUM” coverage. Say you had $100,000 is SUM coverage. Now what happens is you get the $25,000 in coverage from the at-fault driver you will also have the chance to get an additional $75,000 from your own “SUM” policy to cover your losses. Another reason it is important to buy good SUM coverage is that most accidents are caused by people carrying only the minimum $25,000 liability coverage. People with bad driving records have to pay more for insurance, so they are often the most likely to be able to afford only the cheapest ($25,000) liability insurance. You are most likely to get hit by a drunk, a speeding car, or a young person with all kinds of traffic tickets under their belt, and these are the very same people who are most likely to carry the minimum liability insurance.  Bottom line: if you either have a car or are thinking of purchasing/leasing a car get yourself SUM insurance so you and the occupants of your vehicle are covered for a New York bus crash.

Good question. The fact is, they don’t. Maybe they don’t want to take the time to explain it. And they do not make much money off of selling it. So if you don’t specifically ask your insurance broker/agent for SUM coverage, he or she is likely to give you only the minimum $25,000 in SUM, which really provides you this additional amount only if the at-fault vehicle that struck you is uninsured! And that rarely happens. So the standard $25,000 is SUM coverage is virtually useless. You need more, and again, it is CHEAP. By the way, if you bought insurance for your vehicle, I’ll bet you purchased NO SUM COVERAGE AT ALL — that’s right, not even the $25,000 minimum, because the minimum applies only to automobiles. If you want any SUM coverage at all for a vehicle, you have to specifically request it from your broker. Do it today!

$25,000 might sound like a lot of money, but if you are seriously injured and can’t work, that money is NOTHING. You will run dry in no time, and you will be regretting your decision to not buy good SUM coverage.

At Uptown Injury Law, PLLC  recommend that you make sure that your SUM coverage is at the same level as your liability coverage. Therefore, if you have $100,000 in liability coverage, make sure you also have $100,000 in SUM coverage. Call your insurance broker today to make the change! You will see how cheap it is. If you or your passengers are ever injured by the fault of another driver, you will call us and thank us for this advice. 

We understand your reluctance to call a New York bus accident attorney right away. No one wants to think about suing someone else! Everyone hopes they get better soon and won’t have to worry about the long-term consequences of a bus accident injury. For sure, if you need medical attention immediately or soon after the accident, you should seek legal advice as soon as you can after getting proper medical attention. Don’t wait. Although the injury may appear minor at first, it might develop into a significant injury. Your lawyer will want to investigate the accident while the evidence is still fresh. Also, some important time limitations for filing certain claims might slip by if you wait. For example, you need to file your no-fault claim form within 30 days of the accident. If there is an issue of negligent road design or maintenance, you may need to file notice of claim against the government agency responsible for the roadway within 90 days. Your lawyer will also want to check your own insurance policy to see if it has “SUM” (Supplemental un/underinsured motorist coverage) to see if there is any “hidden” insurance coverage in it. If a “SUM” claim needs to be filed against your own insurer, your lawyer will need to put your carrier on notice of this as soon as possible. Otherwise, you jeopardize losing such “hidden” insurance coverage. 

First, never sign any documents, or give any “recorded statements”, to anyone without first consulting with an attorney. What you sign or say can come back to haunt you if you end up bringing a claim for your personal injuries. Insurance agents are notoriously good at getting you to say things that tend to later hurt your case.

Second, try not to say “it was my fault” or anything to that effect at the scene or afterwards (except to your attorney). Sometimes you want to apologize to be polite or nice, or because you actually feel it was your fault. But you could be wrong about whose fault it was! Even if it was partly your fault, evidence that comes up later might show that it was also the other guy’s fault, or the road design’s fault. But if people have heard you say “it was my fault”, that sentence will later be waived before the jury time and time again to show that it was all your fault. So don’t say it, even if you think it!

Third, don’t try to be a hero by refusing medical treatment or telling everyone that you are alright when in fact you have pain. Some people, men usually, are brought up to believe it is a weakness to complain, or to admit to pain. But if you say “I’m alright” or if you wait a few days to get medical treatment because you are trying to “tough it out”, this will hurt your case. The insurance company lawyer will point out to the jury that, by your own admission, you had “no pain” at the time of the accident, that you did not seek or need treatment, and that you only felt pain “after you consulted a lawyer”! That’s right, they will argue that you made the whole thing up with your lawyer just to get money.

Finally, never talk to the other guy’s insurance carrier about the details of your accident or your pain and injuries, and certainly don’t talk to them about settling your case. Before you do any of that, you need to consult with a reputable bus accident lawyer, and there are several in New York City and surrounding areas. Contact us today for a free consultation.

That’s impossible. A reputable personal injury attorney will not charge you for an initial consultation. Uptown Injury Law, PLLC  will give you a free consultation. If we decide to represent you, we will charge you on a contingency fee basis, which is usually 1/3 of the net recovery we obtain for you, whether from a settlement or from a jury. Since the initial consultation is free, why wait? Contact us today for a free consultation.

Uptown Injury Law, PLLC  has recovered millions of dollars for clients injured in automobile collisions and for other injuries to cover their medical bills, lost earnings, pain and suffering, and more. If you or a loved one has been a victim of an automobile accident, contact us for a free consultation with an experienced lawyer who can inform you of your legal rights and maximize your compensation.