It is estimated more than 23 million elementary and secondary school children ride school buses every day in the United States. National data show that school bus related accidents send 17,000 children to the emergency rooms every year in this country.  Nearly one quarter of those accidents occur when children are boarding or leaving school buses.  Crashes, such as the recent tragedy in the St. Louis, Missouri area which killed two people, reportedly account for 42 percent of accidents involving children and school buses which amounts to about 8,000 children every year.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has established federal motor vehicle safety standards that must be followed by school bus owners and companies.  These requirements include regulating emergency exits, roof structure, seating and fuel systems as well as bus body joint integrity.  The NHTSA also sponsors programs on school bus safety.

Whenever a family suffers from a wrongful death or injury at the hands of another, it is a tragedy. But it seems that bus accidents and other mass transportation accidents appear to affect those families and the general public the worst. The communities of these families and all of America mourn the disasters where dozens of people needlessly die.

Buses certainly are a convenient form of public transportation – whether they be commuter buses, tour buses, airport shuttles, ski shuttle buses, casino buses or, of course, school buses. As common carriers, bus drivers and bus companies owe their passengers a greater duty of care in protecting them from harm. School bus driving takes special training and that training must be adequate.  School buses also need to be checked regularly for safe operation.

Actions against a common carrier can involve the negligent conduct of the bus driver or inadequate training, or the condition of the school bus itself such as improper maintenance or defective parts.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a school bus crash, certain time periods are required to be followed in filing a lawsuit. These deadlines are called statutes of limitations. They vary from state to state and certain common carriers that are owned by governmental entities such as federal, state, county or city governments may have special notices that must be given before filing a lawsuit. These time periods can be very short.

Clifford Law Offices currently is handling several bus accident cases. In 2005, the tragedy of a University of Illinois student killed by a bus driver made national headlines. The firm filed a lawsuit against the Mass Transit District and its driver on behalf of the family of a freshman student from Deerfield who was killed while she was walking to her dormitory. The firm’s bus accident attorneys also represent a 15-year-old honors student from the west side of Chicago who was severely injured when a bus driver struck her at the curb then drove away. Clifford Law Offices also represents the family of an 81-year-old woman killed when a semi-trailer rammed the back of a tour bus in which she was sitting with dozens of other elderly people.

Clifford Law Offices’ Cases Dealing with Bus Accidents

Robert Clifford - $24 million (Verdict): 8-year-old boy suffers permanent brain damage and motor impairment after he was struck by a CTA bus as he crossed the street in a school zone crosswalk

Kevin Durkin - $7 million (Verdict): Woman in crosswalk struck by bus suffers permanent brain damage

Robert Clifford - $6.5 million (Verdict): 55-year-old woman’s legs crushed by a CTA bus making too tight a turn in the crosswalk

Robert Clifford - $5 million (Verdict): Jogger hit by bus suffers permanent injuries

Kevin Durkin - $1.2 million (Verdict): Single female struck and injured by private bus

Craig Squillace - $374,430 (Verdict): 41-year-old passenger on bus thrown into air and lands on right heel, fracturing it, when bus hits a bump

Tim Tomasik - $300,000 (Verdict): 46-year-old woman suffers ankle fracture while riding in a rental car shuttle bus that is struck by a van

John Karnezis - $1.4 million: 15-year-old student is struck by a bus on her way to school; suffers severe degloving injury to her leg

Robert Clifford - $2.775 million: bus makes tight right-hand turn and pins 24-year-old woman against barrier; leg is degloved

Accolades for Clifford Law Offices

Clifford Law Offices received national first-tier rankings in Plaintiffs' Product Liability Litigation in the 2010 U.S. News-Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" Guide. Thousands of clients and law firms were surveyed by U.S. News-Best Lawyers. This is the first time that a national ranking has been compiled and it was featured in the October print issue of U.S. News & World Report. Robert Clifford, senior and name partner at the firm, was named the 2009 Best Lawyers' Top Personal Injury Attorney in Chicago. The firm also received Metropolitan First-Tier rankings in Plaintiffs' Personal Injury Litigation, Plaintiffs' Product Liability Litigation and Plaintiffs' Medical Malpractice Law in what some have called the most comprehensive view of the U.S. legal profession. Thousands of law firms and clients were surveyed. Robert Clifford has been named a Best Lawyer since the publication's inception in 1983. Kevin Durkin and Keith Hebeisen, partners at the firm, were named Best Lawyers in the 2011 edition. Robert A. Clifford was selected in 2004 as one of the "five most respected and feared plaintiffs' attorneys" in the country by Corporate Legal Times, calling him "the best of the bad." The National Law Journal named Mr. Clifford's firm on the "Plaintiffs' Hot List: 20 Go-To Teams" in 2004 and one of the top 25 firms in 2003. The publication also named Robert Clifford one of the Top Ten Litigators in Illinois as well as one of the nation's Top Ten Litigators. American Lawyer Media recognized Mr. Clifford as one of the Top Ten Most Influential Lawyers in Illinois in 2000. He has consistently been voted by his peers as one of the Best Lawyers in America , and he was named one of Chicago's "30 Toughest Lawyers" by Chicago Magazine in 2002. He was selected to be a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group of 100 trial lawyers from around the country.