Bus Accident Attorney in St. Charles, MO

Bus Accident Attorney in St. Charles, MO. If you or someone you care about has been hurt in a devastating bus accident, take the first step in your recovery by calling Burger Law today at (314) 500-HURT or by contacting us online.

Bus accidents hardly ever get equal attention as plane or train wrecks, even though the can frequently be similarly hazardous and fatal. In 2020, there were 964 bus accidents in Missouri that resulted in personal injury or death. We trust St. Charles, MO bus drivers and bus companies to keep us safe and respect the rules. When they break that trust and do not respect the rules it can have ruinous, sometimes lifelong effects for you or the people you care about. Your St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney at Burger Law will ensure that you secure the best possible compensation that you are entitled to for your injuries.

At Burger Law, our bus accident attorney team has more than 20 years of experience fighting for the rights of the injured in St. Charles and throughout Missouri and standing up to bullies like dishonest insurance companies and people who carelessly do not want to be held accountable for their careless actions. Many St. Charles, MO residents have put their claims and their futures in our trustworthy hands, and to date we have gotten them over $175 million in verdicts and settlements. Our bus accident attorney team uses their determination, devotion, tenacity, knowledge and experience to help right wrongs in personal injury cases and help St. Charles, MO residents heal. You should not have to lose wages, pay for sky-high medical bills and also deal with the emotional toll of your injury only because another person did not respect the rules. If you or a loved one has been hurt in a St. Charles, MO bus accident, call the bus accident attorney of Burger Law today at (314) 500-HURT or contact us online for a complimentary case review. We begin working on your case right away, and we do not charge any fees until we win your case.

If you were injured in a bus accident in St. Charles, MO because of another person's reckless actions, discover how much your injury may be worth by using our personal injury calculator.

Do I Need a St. Charles, MO Bus Accident Attorney?

If you were caused injuries in a bus accident, you are probably feeling especially unprotected. After all, you were not the driver and you boarded the bus assuming that the proper safety arrangements were obeyed. St. Charles, MO bus companies and drivers have stringent laws they have a responsibility to respect, but sometimes they neglect those duties and they leave us to pick up the pieces. Because of the force that is generally exerted by bus accidents, injuries can take years to truly recover from, may have permanent consequences or in the most tragic cases can even result in wrongful death. The St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney at Burger Law will fight on your behalf so you are not required to go it alone. When you hire us we begin working on your case immediately, and will not let up until you recover the best possible compensation you deserve. We have made a claim for every type of bus accident claim and know every trick insurance companies use to try and deceive injured St. Charles, MO individuals and families into settling for less money than they deserve. Those St. Charles, MO insurance companies fear us because they know our bus accident attorney team takes up – and wins – the difficult cases. Call us today and let the compassionate, accomplished and aggressive bus accident lawyers at Burger Law help you safeguard your family’s future and help make you whole again.

The legal process is complex and can be unforgiving to St. Charles, MO residents who do not have the litigation and trial skills of an accomplished bus accident attorney. For over two decades standing up to bullies and fighting the hard fight. When you hire our St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney team, we manage every facet of your case. You can anticipate a seasoned and knowledgeable bus accident attorney at Burger Law to:

• Investigate the accident site immediately. When you call us, we can have a bus accident lawyer at the site at any time during the day or night in order to acquire key evidence for your claim.
• Interview eyewitnesses who were either also involved in the crash or were nearby. As buses carry multiple passengers, there are usually other passengers who want the same answers and compensation you do. We will take official depositions of eyewitnesses to help in your case.
• Obtain additional evidence such as tire marks, security videos, police reports, as well as key details such as how far the driver had driven without taking a break or when the last inspection and maintenance was conducted on the bus. A lot of different factors give rise to bus accidents, and your Burger Law St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney will determine why the crash happened and who needs to be held liable.
• Utilize our network of St. Charles, MO accident and medical experts to determine liability for your bus accident injuries and assess precisely how much your damages are worth. You deserve every dime of what you are owed and we will use our experience and expertise to make certain you collect it.
• Fight back against resistant St. Charles, MO insurance companies who are more concerned for their bottom line than your well-being. We have seen every trick in the book that insurance companies use to try and avoid their duty to compensate you. When you hire us, you can be sure those schemes will not work in your case.
• Take the fight to trial if the insurance company will not offer a fair settlement, we will use our constantly trained litigation skills to secure you a great financial recovery for your injuries.

Beyond that, our bus accident attorney team will be in your corner entire time. We handle all communication, documentation and litigation so that you can focus all of your energy on healing and making your family whole again. We collect no attorneys fees until you get full compensation. If you or a family member has been harmed in a ruinous bus accident, contact an expert and committed bus accident attorney at Burger Law today.

Who is Liable for My Bus Accident Injuries?

Because it requires so many people to run a bus safely, from manufacturers, to bus companies to drivers, you will first need to find out the cause of the accident before determining who was negligent. Thankfully, an accomplished and skilled St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney like those at Burger Law have seen every variety of car accident, truck accident and bus accident case and will be able to discover who needs to be held liable for your injuries.

What Causes Bus Accidents? | St. Charles, MO Bus Accident Attorney

• The age of the driver and their experience. A 2012 Journal of Safety Research study found that inexperienced drivers under 25 years old, in addition to more experienced drivers over 55 years old were more likely to be driving when a bus accident occurred.
• Driver action. While the same study reported that only 4 percent of bus accidents were owing to a serious offense such as drunk driving, another study by the University of Michigan stated that 31 percent of bus drivers in metropolitan area bus wrecks had been cited with driving errors, such as speeding, being sleepy or distracted driving.
• Driver fatigue. A large portion of bus drivers, particularly the ones that work for commercial bus companies such as Greyhound that require drivers to drive hundreds of miles in the middle of the night, become sleepy and can even fall asleep behind the wheel. While most busing companies have specifications about how many hours a driver can drive during without a break or how frequently they have to take a break, those rules are often <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/23/us/greyhound-investigation/" target="_blank” rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener title="CNN"not mandatory or complied with.
• Road conditions. Given buses’ size and the intricacy of steering them, slippery roads or St. Charles, MO construction areas can be particularly risky for bus riders. Sometimes a third party such as a construction company will be at fault. Burger Law's bus accident attorney will help you discover if that is the case.
• Negligence by the bus company. Bus companies are overseen by regulatory bodies, but not nearly as much as other transportation industries. A 2011 study by the National Transportation Safety Board found that The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has only 878 personnel responsible for reviews for more than 765,000 motor carriers, or a mere 1.15 inspectors per 1,000 motor carriers. This means reviews frequently cannot stay ahead of the number of inspections required. Some St. Charles, MO bus companies do not properly repair their vehicles, causing them to be a hazard. Furthermore, bus companies are required to make certain that their drivers are adequately trained and are not overworked.
• Hazardous roads. Unsafe road conditions or hazards in the road can lead to a driver losing control and causing an accident. A Few common examples are:
  • Potholes
  • Uneven pavement or cracks in the pavement
  • Defective or missing traffic signals
  • Obstacles on the road, such as branches or vehicle wreckage
  • Insufficient lighting
  • Excessive grades

  The longer the hazardous condition has been on the St. Charles, MO street, the better chance you have of holding the at-fault parties accountable. The liable party may be a local St. Charles, MO government, or a third party whom the government contracted to eliminate the problem but either did not do so soon enough or did not sufficiently repair it.

Once your talented St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney ascertains the cause of your wreck, they will be able to determine who is liable for your injuries and how to take the next steps toward winning you the best possible financial recovery. Below are some examples of parties who are often found at-fault in bus accident cases.

Commercial Bus Lines

Transportation buses such as Greyhounds are deemed common carriers legally speaking, which means they have a duty of care to their customers to look out for their safety. One facet of that duty of care is to make certain that their drivers are not driving too many miles in a day. Despite saying that safety is their principal priority, a CNN report in 2016 found that Greyhound is not following its own rules in regards to driver fatigue. Drivers are theoretically mandated to stop every 150 miles and get out to inspect the vehicle to hold off drowsiness. However, the rule is not enforced and is rarely followed as too many breaks could result in financial losses for the company. A 2012 government study reported that 37 percent of all passenger bus crashes were owing to driver fatigue. Furthermore, many Greyhound customers have said that their driver was eating during the time of an accident, which is an example of distracted driving.

Making sure that St. Charles, MO buses are adequately inspected and repaired and that they have safety equipment such as seatbelts are also part of the bus company's duty. A bus accident may be because of a bus company either neglecting to conduct routine inspections or neglecting to fix a broken part or component. Older buses are particularly prone to breaking down and bus companies must keep their fleets updated.

Lastly, bus companies cannot use negligent hiring practices. All drivers need to be correctly licensed and trained, and should only be permitted to drive after passing strict background checks. Your St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney at Burger Law will carry out a complete investigation into the bus company's hiring practices and the person who was driving when the crash occurred.

A Bus Manufacturer

Like car and other motor vehicle manufacturers, bus manufacturers have a duty to verify the safety of their vehicles and swiftly announce recalls if a product is found to be hazardous. If they approve an inherently dangerous design or do not recall a component that they knew or should have known was not functioning properly, they are guilty of product liability. While they may try to place the blame on someone else, your St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney at Burger Law has over two decades of experience making sure negligent parties are held accountable for their behavior.

The St. Charles or Missouri Government or a Public Entity

Public transportation accidents can frequently be calamitous because of the amount of people involved and because they usually occur in metropolitan areas. While you can make a claim against the St. Charles, MO government, there are particular procedures for doing so. Missouri has stricter protections for governmental bodies and government employees than for the average citizen in personal injury suits. If you seek to make a claim against a municipality or government employee, you must file it within 90 days of the accident with the Office of Administration’s Risk Management Division. That is why it is urgent to contact a St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney at once after your accident. Do not delay, call the trusted Burger Law bus accident injury lawyers now at (314) 500-HURT.

Missouri Revised Statute §537.600 grants sovereign immunity to government entities and employees except against a government employee who was operating a motor vehicle “within the course of their employment.” This means that you can sue or make a claim against a liable or reckless public bus driver in Missouri.

The Bus Driver

Even a properly licensed and trained bus driver can cause a crash through driving mistakes. If they became distracted by eating or texting, did not stop driving when they were feeling overly tired, did not pay attention to the St. Charles, MO road conditions and driving laws while they were driving or made the dangerous decision to drive drunk, they need to be held accountable just like bus companies sometimes have to be. When you get on a bus you trust that driver with your well-being and your life. If a bus driver does not take that obligation seriously and causes you injury, you can be confident that the devoted and aggressive bus accident attorney at Burger Law will make them pay.

The Other Driver

Like any type of auto collision, there are frequently two or more drivers, and in some cases they each may share a percentage of the blame. Another driver’s negligence, such as speeding, driving while intoxicated or pulling in front of the bus too quickly can hurt you. If you were injured in a bus wreck where there was another driver or drivers involved, your knowledgeable and experienced St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney will help you establish if they are liable and if you should make a claim against their insurance company.

School Districts

School bus accidents are the most common type of bus crash in St. Charles and Missouri. Nationally, school bus accidents account for 40 percent of all fatal bus accidents. While often the driver, bus company or bus manufacturer is responsible, a school district in St. Charles, MO may also be held accountable, for instance if they did not cancel school on a day when weather conditions were particularly dangerous or they did not carry out adequate background checks when hiring drivers.

Below are some helpful links and frequently asked questions for bus accident injuries and other types of injuries:

• Do I have to Talk to the Insurance Company Before I Talk to a Lawyer?
• How Much to Expect in an Auto Accident Settlement
• What Happens During Litigation?
• Does My Family Have a Wrongful Death Claim?
• Proving Negligence in a Personal Injury Claim

What Compensation Can A Bus Accident Attorney in St. Charles, MO Recover For Me?

The compensation you get in a bus accident case will generally depend on the severity of your injuries and the consequences they have on your life. You may have gotten a sprained wrist that just required a quick trip to an emergency room in St. Charles, MO and a short time off work. Or, you may have sustained a disastrous spinal cord injury that leaves you disabled and in need of assistive devices for the rest of your life. When you hire a dedicated and accomplished St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney at Burger Law, we will make sure that you collect a full financial recovery for all of the pain and inconvenience your injury has caused and will continue to cause. Missouri Senate Bill 239 defines the damages you can receive as:

• Economic damages, including:
  • Medical expenses, such as hospital bills, rehabilitation, assistive devices and medications
  • Lost wages
  • Lost earning capacity

  We use our team of medical and economic experts to quantify the exact dollar amount you are entitled to, accounting for inflation for future lost earning potential or future medical expenses.

• Noneconomic damages, including:
  • pain and suffering
  • mental anguish
  • inconvenience
  • physical impairment
  • disfigurement
  • loss of capacity to enjoy life
  • loss of consortium

However serious your injuries and however much they have affected your life, Burger Law's St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney team will fight aggressively to ensure that you receive the best possible compensation for all of your damages.

Learn more about our various practice areas by clicking the links below:

• Survival Action Lawyer in Missouri
• Truck Crash Lawyers in Missouri
• Semi-Truck Accident Lawyer in Missouri

Call Our St. Charles, MO Bus Accident Attorney Today

We have seen every kind of bus accident case and know the immense pain and catastrophic effect it can have on your and your family. Your St. Charles, MO bus accident attorney at Burger Law is passionate, accomplished, trustworthy and tenacious and will use every bit of the knowledge and abilities we have obtained over the past two decades to secure you the full recovery you are rightfully owed. If you or a loved one has been harmed in a bus accident, do not delay. Call Burger Law immediately at (314) 500-HURT or fill out our online form for a complimentary case evaluation.