Are you planning to schedule a short weekend trip? Of course, you can only explore some nearby destinations during such short trips and if your gang includes a significantly larger number of people, chartering a tour bus will be the best choice. In fact, this is one of the cheapest and safest modes of transportation when it comes to transporting people to tourist spots. However, tourist buses as well tend to get involved in accidents and the passengers will have to rely on the services of a seasoned bus accident attorney to claim fair bus accident settlement.
Needless to mention, the bus accident victims are likely to suffer from catastrophic injuries, lifetime health conditions, and even death in this case because of the huge size of the vehicle. On top of that, multiple parties can be held liable for tourist bus accidents depending on the circumstances, especially based on the contractual terms and relationships. This can make your bus accident settlement claim even more challenging.
Are you wondering about proving the liability in tourist bus accident cases, insurance claims, and other issues associated with such accidents? For this, you may refer to the valuable points regarding bus accidents liability claims given below
Common carriers
Some vehicles that transport people and goods are regarded as common carriers in California and under most other federal and state laws. Note that a common carrier is entitled to higher standards and can be defined as an entity or vehicle that transport people safely from one place to another. Usually, almost all the huge vehicles including commercial buses, school buses, tourist buses, commercial ships, airplanes, certain trucks, taxi cabs, etc., are regarded as common carriers.
These vehicles must maintain a higher degree of diligence and care when it comes to the safety of their passengers. Since common carriers have a duty of care towards their passengers, the compensation that the victims are likely to obtain in this case will be much higher when compared to an accident caused by a non-common carrier.
However, the comparative negligence law will come into play in this case. For instance, a bus driver is expected to exercise cautious driving, obey traffic rules, and be pleasing. So, if the negligence of the common carrier driver leads to your accident and resulting injuries, you can sue him/her or the bus company. However, if a drunken driver hits his/her passenger car on the bus, the court may not hold the tour bus operator negligible or liable for your injuries since it will be impossible for anyone to foresee or predict such accidents. Hence, you will not be able to sue the tour bus operator or company in this case.
Proving the liability
While proving liability in case of a tour bus accident seems pretty straightforward and simple, it is not that clear or easy all the time. As mentioned earlier, multiple parties can be held liable for your injuries or damages in this case based on the circumstances. The defendant can be the tour bus operator, Bus Company, Tour Company, the bus manufacturer, etc. This, however, depends on the share of fault committed by every party. Below are the points that you may consider to prove liability in case of tour bus accidents.
Tour Company
Not every tour company will own their own bus service. In most cases, they tend to hire the services of other bus companies. However, the former has a duty of care towards the tourists and is expected to hire a reputed, clean, and experienced bus company to transport their clients. If the bus company violated any of the safety rules and resulted in the collision, the tour company will also have to share the responsibility with them.
Bus Company
It is the responsibility of the bus companies to ensure that their buses are safe and in perfect condition to transport passengers. Plus, they must be keen on hiring the services of licensed, experienced, and skilled drivers. They must get their buses certified as common carriers as well. However, if the driver contributed even 1% to the accident, the bus company will be held responsible for it.
Multiple bus destinations
Tour buses are expected to stop at different spots for relaxation and sightseeing. Hence, the authorities in charge of these destinations have a duty of care towards the tourists. If a person slips and falls at any of these destinations because of its poor maintenance or conditions, the owner of the property is to blame.
However, it will be hard for the victims to obtain fair compensation when multiple parties are involved. After all, the defendants, as well as their insurance agents, will try their best to settle you for zero or a lowball offer. This explains the necessity of hiring the services of a seasoned and specialized bus accident attorney to represent your case in court. Plus, collect significant pieces of evidence to strengthen your case or legal claim.