Atlanta Bus Accident Lawyer

Many people rely on public transportation to get to work safely. In fact, 700 million passengers are transported by buses across the country every year. Additionally, parents trust school buses to transport their children to and from school every day.

Unfortunately, however, bus accidents are a familiar occurrence in bustling cities like Atlanta. And when bus accidents occur, they often cause severe injuries.

If you or a loved one was recently injured in a bus accident in Atlanta, you have options. Speak to an Atlanta personal injury lawyer to find out if you are entitled to pursue a personal injury claim against the bus driver or bus company to collect compensation for your injuries.

At Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC, we help bus accident victims in Atlanta receive the compensation they deserve. Call us today at (404) 996-1296 to arrange a free consultation with a knowledgeable Atlanta bus accident attorney.

Why Choose Us as Your Atlanta Bus Accident Attorneys?

The attorneys at Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC have dedicated their careers to advocating for injury victims, particularly against large companies, government entities, and their powerful insurance companies. Our firm offers the following advantages to your Atlanta bus accident claim:

• An attorney dedicated to your case who will strategize the best way forward to recover the maximum compensation available to you
• The skills and resources of an entire legal staff behind your case
• An attorney who prepares your case as if for trial while always striving for a low-conflict resolution through a settlement
• A history of recovering millions of dollars for clients to put a strong, respected voice behind your claim throughout negotiations for your settlement
• As experienced investigators, we make compelling, evidence-backed claims that achieve our client’s goals

We offer a free case consultation and contingency-based payment, so you pay nothing for our legal services until after we recover your compensation through a settlement or court award.

How Are Bus Accident Claims Different from Car Accident Claims?

While you may be familiar with the process involved with pursuing compensation after a car accident, our Atlanta car accident attorneys explain a couple of important differences between bus accident claims and car accident claims that you should know about:

Buses are Common Carriers

What this means under Georgia law is that bus drivers have a heightened responsibility to their passengers. There is specific training that a bus driver must receive and certain safety guidelines and protocols that they must follow. When a bus driver does not receive the necessary training or follow the required guidelines and procedures, and as a result, someone is injured or killed, the driver and the company they work for may be held liable.

Buses Are Often Owned by Government Entities

Buses are often owned and operated by cities, municipalities, and school districts, which changes some of your legal requirements in terms of filing a personal injury claim after being injured in a bus accident. In most cases, this means that before you can file a claim, you need to provide earlier notice to the government entity of your intent to bring the claim. An experienced Atlanta bus accident lawyer from Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC, can help walk you through that process.

What Compensation is Available After a Bus Accident in Atlanta?

Bus accidents may cause serious injuries and financial hardship as well as pain and distress. Even less serious injuries sometimes result in missed paychecks and exorbitant bills for medical treatment. An attorney from Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC will help you file a claim for compensation for any or all of the following:

• Medical expenses
• Future medical costs for injury-related treatment
• Lost income
• Future income loss
• Pain and suffering
• Other non-economic damages that might apply in your case such as PTSD, trauma, disfigurement, or loss of enjoyment of life compensation

Your Atlanta bus accident lawyer will carefully calculate your damages so you miss no compensation that’s available to you from the at-fault party’s insurance company.

Will I Have to Go to Court For a Bus Accident Case in Atlanta?

The vast majority of personal injury claims—including bus accident injury claims—are resolved outside of court through direct, evidence-backed negotiations with the attorney of the at-fault party assigned by the insurance adjuster on the case. Only in about five percent of cases does the claim become a lawsuit in court when an insurer denies a valid claim or offers an unacceptably low settlement amount.

Promptly filing your claim is important so your Atlanta bus accident lawyer has time to investigate, document evidence, calculate your damages, and make a compelling case to send in a demand letter to the insurer, and then has ample time to negotiate a settlement. Sometimes mediation occurs to help settle the claim outside of court. If your case must go to court to secure your compensation through a jury award for damages, your lawyer from Piasta, Walker, Hagenbush, LLC must file a lawsuit petition within two years of the date of the accident to be within Georgia’s two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims.

Common Causes of Atlanta Bus Accidents

We like to think of buses as friendly, lumbering neighborhood vehicles, but they also transport passengers in crowded seating without seatbelts while navigating through congested traffic and along high-speed highways. Common causes of bus accidents in busy Atlanta traffic include:

• Speeding
• Tailgating
• Unsafe lane changes
• Improper merging
• Failure to yield the right of way
• Aggressive driving
• Fatigued driving
• Intoxicated driving
• Inadequate bus maintenance

In some cases, a bus accident results from a third party, such as a third-party driver or a negligent road maintenance agency or road construction company that left a hazardous road condition.

What to Do After a Bus Accident In Atlanta

The scene of a bus accident is terrifying and traumatic, especially when there are multiple injuries. If you are incapacitated by your injuries, it may not be possible to take purposeful action, but if you or an uninjured companion can use a cell phone without causing further injury, it becomes a critical tool for preserving evidence. You can protect your physical and financial future after a bus accident by doing the following:

• First, call 911 to report the accident if no one else has called
• Then, apply reasonable first aid and comfort to others when possible
• Use the phone’s camera to take photos of the damaged bus, the accident scene, and any visible injuries
• Add the contact information of the bus driver
• Add the contact information of any eyewitnesses to the accident

By recording the names of eyewitnesses, the witness is available to provide evidence that’s crucial when accidents occur in places without traffic cameras. Often, eyewitnesses leave the scene of an accident without leaving their contact information.

Always go directly to the hospital after a bus accident, either in the ambulance or by arranging your own transportation from the accident scene as soon as you are cleared to leave. At the hospital, ask the medical provider for a full medical examination as well as treatment for emergency injuries. This helps to ensure that they identify injuries with delayed symptom presentation like whiplash, internal organ damage, and traumatic brain injuries so you receive the care you need to minimize the long-term effects.

Your detailed medical report and the police report of the accident become critical tools in a compensation claim after a bus accident. 

Proving Liability In a Bus Accident Claim in Georgia

Determining the liable party can be challenging in a bus accident. It takes an investigation into the cause of the accident to determine what negligent action was responsible and who is liable for the damages. In a bus accident, liable parties could be any of the following:

• The driver if they are an independent contractor
• The bus company or agency if they engaged in negligent hiring or training practices
• A bus maintenance company
• The manufacturer of a defective bus part
• A third-party driver
• A negligent road or highway maintenance agency

To meet the burden of proving liability with a preponderance of the evidence, your attorney must demonstrate the following legal points:

• The party at fault owed a duty of reasonable care to prevent injury to others
• They breached this duty through an act of negligence
• The negligent breach of duty caused the injury
• The injury victim suffered economic and non-economic damages from the injury

As the injury victim in a bus accident, you may be facing powerful insurance companies that deny their client’s liability or offer lowball settlements in exchange for signing away your right to a lawsuit. Always consult with your Atlanta bus accident attorney and then direct all communication with the insurance company to your lawyer.

Your Rights After a Bus Accident in Atlanta, GA

If you are a victim of a bus accident, whether you were a passenger on a bus or were in a vehicle that was struck by a bus, it is important to understand your rights. If the accident was caused by the bus driver’s negligence, you are entitled to be compensated for your pain and suffering, medical bills, future medical treatment, any lost wages that you have incurred, and other damages.

Our job at Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC is to try to make things right. We cannot go back in time and make it as if the bus accident never happened. But what we can try to do is to make you whole again, by putting you in the position you would have been if the accident never happened. Whether that means making sure your medical bills get paid, making sure that you are compensated for any lost wages you have incurred, or getting you paid for the pain and suffering that you have had to endure, that is what we will do.

Contact an Experienced Atlanta Bus Accident Lawyer

If you were a passenger on a bus in Atlanta that was involved in an accident, and you sustained a serious injury, or if you were driving a car or other vehicle, and you were hit by a bus, we are here to help. Call Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC today at (404) 996-1296 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation with an experienced Atlanta bus accident lawyer.

Our bus accident lawyers in Atlanta have the experience and the expertise to get you the compensation you deserve, and we charge no fee until and unless we recover compensation on your behalf.