Recently, my law firm has been signing up a large number of bus accident cases.
We recently were retained by one gentleman who was injured when the CTA bus he was a passenger in rear ended another vehicle. Not too long ago, I tried a case for a man who was injured while a passenger on a CTA bus. The bus he was on, hit a speed bump at a high rate of speed sending him into the air. When he came down, his heel shattered. We were also recently retained by a husband and a wife who were rear ended by a Pace Bus while on the way home from a recent Chicago Bears home game. Though these people were seriously hurt, they had a good sense of humor and stated, “At least the Bears won.”
This increased amount of bus crash cases my firm has been getting does not really surprise me. After all, there are approximately 9000 of them each year. We are in a down economy and common sense dictates that more people will use the bus than their cars, if presented with the choice. Because there are more and more people using buses, an economically wise thing to do, there are more buses on the road each year. This leads to more bus accidents.
In Illinois, buses are called “common carriers.” This means that bus drivers and bus companies owe their passengers the duty to use the highest degree of care. If they do not use the highest degree of care consistent with the type of vehicle used in the practical operation of its business, they are negligent.
