Nationwide Bus Accident Attorneys

​Bus Crash Facts and Statistics

In 2018, there were roughly 65,000 bus accidents in the U.S., according to data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). While most of these crashes resulted only in property damage, 234 caused deaths and 15,000 others caused injuries.​  
Source: https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/tsftables/tsfar.htm

The lion’s share of bus accidents in the U.S. involve school buses. An estimated 25 million public school students ride over 450,000 school buses twice daily to go to and from school. Another 1­2 million students ride school buses to and from school-related activities each day. Between 2008 and 2018, school buses accounted for 40% of all fatal bus crashes in the U.S. During the same period, intercity buses accounted for 12% and transit buses accounted for 35% of all fatal bus crashes.

Some other bus crash statistics:

• There are more than 990,000 buses on the roads (includes municipally owned transit and commercial, federal, and school buses).
• Bus accidents injure approximately 25,000 people every year.
• On average, more than 250 people are killed in bus-related accidents each year.
• Each day, over 450,000 school buses travel the nation’s roads.
• An average of 23 school-age children die in school transportation-related traffic crashes each year.
• Nearly half of school-age pedestrians killed in school transportation-related crashes were between the ages of 5 and 7 years old.

Bus Accidents by State

In the data below, you can see that California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, and Georgia saw the most fatal bus crashes in the NHTSA’s most recent statistical report.

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Source: https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/tsftables/tsfar.htm

Wisner Baum Represents Bus Accident Victims Across the Country

Over the years, Wisner Baum has prevailed in many of the most highly-publicized commercial transportation cases in the nation, including more than 300 commercial trucking, train, and bus accident cases. Our firm has litigated wrongful death and serious injury cases for over 40 years and our attorneys have tried well over 200 cases in their careers.

Many of the cases the firm has litigated involve children riding school buses. Some of these accidents have occurred while transporting children to and from school or to events, while some have involved the bus driver running over the child after the child left the bus.

Among the many bus accident lawsuits handled by our firm is the Girl Scout bus crash near Palm Springs, California in 1991. Seven people were killed and 47 were injured in that crash. Wisner Baum represented 27 people, mostly children, from that accident in which a school-type bus, loaded with Girl Scouts, nose-dived into a gully, and ultimately resulted in the death of four girls when they were thrown through windows onto the rocky ground.

In that bus accident, the firm’s attorneys argued successfully in court that on side impact, unsecured students and passengers can be severely injured when hurled against unpadded walls or through weak windows.

In an effort to improve bus safety, after the resolution of a Kentucky bus crash, Wisner Baum created information packets, including a crash test video that reenacted the actual crash, and organized and funded a national campaign in all fifty states and Canada. The package urged school bus owners, operators and purchasers to relocate gas tanks positioned next to the front doors to an unexposed position inside the frame behind the rear axle, thus reducing the chance of a fire and permitting exiting the front doors if a fire erupts.

Ready to get started? Contact Wisner Baum today at (855) 948-5098. From our offices in Los Angeles, we serve clients nationwide.