Kansas Bus Accident Attorneys

Serving Reno County, Sedgwick County, Saline County, Finney County, Ford County, Seward County, and Ellis County

Bus accidents cause some of the worst injuries to both passengers and other drivers on the road. These accidents can be tragic and oftentimes many can be avoided.

If you are reading this, you or a loved one has likely been injured in a bus accident. You may be experiencing pain from your injuries, as well as stress from dealing with surgeries and treatment. You may need ongoing physical therapy or other treatment to get your health and life back on track.

Our Kansas bus accident attorneys want to help you get compensation for your injuries.

Call us today for free legal advice.

Don’t worry about having money to pay us up front. We will meet for a free Q&A session to find out more about your case.  Call us as soon as you’re able to schedule an appointment.

Read on to learn some basic information about bus accident claims. Find out the most common mistakes people make after bus accidents in Kansas. Then we’ll use a story to illustrate helpful information for making a bus accident claim. Be sure to read this to the end to get the most benefit from it.

Most Common Bus Accident Claim Mistakes

Making a successful accident claim for your bus injury involves many factors. It’s important to be aware of what can weaken or strengthen your case.

Not Getting Medical Attention

After a stressful event like an accident, the body is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, which act to mask pain. This can result in you being more injured than you realize.

Don’t skip the doctor if you don’t experience obvious injury after a bus accident. This can hurt both your body and your claim.

Aside from the obvious benefit of being checked out by medical professionals, doing so creates a record of the incident and your injuries. If you don’t seek treatment right after the accident, the insurance company can poke holes in how much you claim to be injured. They may even challenge when you say the injury occurred. None of these things are good for your case.

Not Following Doctor’s After Visit Instructions

When you see the doctor, they will most likely provide follow-up instructions for any injuries you have. This might include wearing a removable cast for a set minimum time each day, doing physical therapy, or any number of other things.

For the same reasons you must get medical attention after the accident, you need to follow doctor’s instructions and continue your treatment to its conclusion.

It may be that you’re emotionally or physically exhausted from the accident, and just want to take a break from physical therapy or other treatment. You may be having a tough time fitting it around other obligations. If you have to ask someone for a ride to therapy, you may want to avoid causing inconvenience.

Whatever your reason, if you are not being diligent about your aftercare, you will very likely weaken your case. Following doctor’s orders is important to prevent the insurance company from saying that you are to blame in any way for your physical condition.

Melinda Young assists people with personal injury matters in the following locations: Buhler, Burrton, Cheney, Garden Plain, Haven, Hutchinson, Inman, Kingman, Nickerson, and Sterling.

Giving the Insurance Provider a Recorded Statement

Fairly soon after a bicycle accident, you can expect a call from the insurance company of the person who caused your accident. This insurance company representative is going to try to get you to provide a recorded statement. Do not do this.

As rude as it may sound to you, the best thing you can do for yourself in this situation is politely decline to talk and hang up. Insurance companies are businesses that make money by taking in as many premiums as possible and paying out as few claims as possible.

This is crucial to remember because, despite what they say to you, they aren’t calling because they care. They are trying to get you on record saying something — anything— they can use to devalue your claim.

The best thing you can do for the strength of your case is hire an attorney to communicate for you. Don’t worry about getting “in trouble.” The insurance company may sound intimidating when they aren’t getting what they want, but you have absolutely no obligation to speak with them.

Call our Kansas bus accident attorneys today to find out how we can handle communications like this for you in your case.

Waiting Too Long to Hire a Lawyer

With the pain, stress of accident injuries, and worries about paying bills you are experiencing during recovery, it’s understandable to put off hiring a lawyer.

You may feel as though you have lots of time to get a case started, too. Even if there were no statute of limitations on filing, however, putting it off is a big mistake. Not only does evidence invariably disappear over time, but so does witness recall.

In the state of Kansas, you only have two years to file your claim. You may have even less time if the liable party is a government entity. Don’t help the insurance company get out of compensating you by missing your filing deadline. This is one mistake you absolutely can and should avoid.

Don’t Hire the Wrong Lawyer

Hiring the wrong lawyer can destroy your chances of winning your case.

There are dozens of practice areas in the law, and specializations even within personal injury. Each of these comes with its own rules and regulations. Don’t endanger your case by hiring a lawyer who is not familiar with personal injury. A real estate lawyer might be highly recommended by a friend, but that doesn’t help you build a strong bus accident case. Our Kansas bus accident attorneys have experience winning bus accident cases, both in and out of court.

This brings us to another mistake. Not all attorneys are experienced at winning before a jury. Your case might settle before it goes that far, but if it doesn’t, you need an attorney who is confident in the courtroom.

This helps on two fronts. The first is that a skilled trial lawyer knows how to win at trial and has done so in the past. The second is the insurance companies know who these attorneys are, and they do not want to face them in court.

This can get the insurance company to come to the bargaining table with an offer that is more than you’d thought possible. It may very likely be a higher offer than you could have received without a trial lawyer by your side.

Don’t give the insurance company leverage over your case by hiring the wrong attorney. Our Kansas bus accident attorneys have helped others in situations like yours, and will prepare your case from the start as if it were going to trial.

Kansas Bus Accident Injury Client Story

Read this story through to the end to learn more about bus accident injury cases. We’ve included answers to some of the most common questions we get on this topic.

The participants names and details of this story have been changed to protect client privacy.

A couple of years ago, a Wichita woman, Louise Carter, stepped onto an MTA bus on her way to her part-time job in the hospital gift shop. It was a beautiful day, and the bus was almost full of people going about their lives.

As Louise boarded the bus, a young man, Albert Johnson, got up and gave her his seat behind the driver. Louise thanked Albert, telling him he reminded her of her grandson. He smiled, laughed, and said she reminded him of his granny. Albert remained standing in the aisle a couple of feet behind Louise’s seat, holding onto one of the metal rails as the bus moved on.

The driver made a few more stops, but it soon became apparent that he was driving erratically. The passengers became alarmed when the driver failed to make a regular stop on the route and didn’t respond to their attempts to get his attention.

After a second missed stop, the bus rolled through an intersection against the traffic light, striking a car that had the right-of-way.

At the moment of impact, Louise was thrown out of her seat toward the stairwell of the bus. She would have gone headfirst down the stairs, but Albert managed to grab hold of her coat and stop her trajectory.

Several passengers were injured in the accident, including Louise. She suffered a broken wrist and three bruised ribs. She also struck her head and suffered a laceration on her forehead.

The accident scene was chaotic, but emergency responders arrived quickly and Louise was taken to the hospital.

Albert stayed with Louise until the ambulance arrived, using his phone to call Louise’s grandson, who left work to meet her at the hospital. Albert also called the hospital to let them know that on this day, Louise would be a patient, not an employee.

Louise was shaken up and cried on the way to the hospital. It wasn’t the pain, she said. She was worried about the little rescue dog waiting for her at home. She was also worried about missing her shift at the gift shop.

Louise spent three days in the hospital. She received five stitches on her forehead, and her wrist was set and put into a cast. Her ribs were wrapped for support while they healed.

During Louise’s hospital stay, her grandson Christopher stayed at her apartment and took care of her dog. He also visited her in the hospital, where he called us to ask about a bus accident claim for Louise.

The day after Louise’s release from the hospital, we met with her and Christopher for a free consultation to answer her questions about her case. From the moment we met, we could see Louise was full of love, giving to all she encountered. Her eyes truly sparkled. She is the kind of person who leaves everyone better for having known her.

It was clear from the beginning of our meeting that Christopher adored his grandmother and felt very protective of her. He sat in on our meeting and asked many questions on her behalf that the two of them had discussed during her stay in the hospital.

The three main questions they had were: (1) How much would this cost? (2) How much could Louise be awarded? (3) How long would it take for the case to wrap up?

If you have been injured in a bus accident, you probably have similar questions. Read on to find out what we told her.

How much will it cost to hire a lawyer?

The first question Christopher asked was, “How much are you going to charge my Grandma to hire you?”

We told them both there was no charge for the free consultation to answer questions and give Louise a good idea of whether she might have a bus accident case worth pursuing. We were there to answer their questions, no strings attached.

Next, we told Louise, “If you decide to hire us, there will be no upfront charge, either, because we work on a contingency basis. This means that we only get paid if we win your case for you.”

Both Louise and Christopher were satisfied with this arrangement.

How much is my case worth?

Next, Louise asked, “How much do you think I could be awarded if you win my case?”

“It is nearly impossible to accurately predict the value of a case right at the start,” our bus accident attorney responded, adding “This is because we need to investigate your accident and find out all the factors around what happened. We need to identify all responsible parties, and we need to get a clear picture of your damages first.”

We let Louise know that if she decided to move forward, we would get started on the investigation right away.

This would involve collecting evidence, getting witness statements, and doing all the paperwork to properly file her claim.

We let Louise know that her job was to rest and recover. “This includes following your doctor’s orders for recovery,” our lawyer told her. In the weeks following the removal of the pins in her wrist, Louise would need to go to the hospital physical therapy room twice a week to regain her range of motion.

We told them both that it was important for Louise to reach maximum medical improvement.

This term means the level of recovery that allows doctors to declare you either back to your previously enjoyed level of function, or else tell you that you’ll need to get used to a lesser level of function as a result of your injuries.

Reaching maximum medical improvement is important because it is the point at which doctors know for sure that you are finished with surgeries, and what future medical treatment may be needed.

Attorneys need this information to gain a complete understanding of both your economic and non-economic damages, now and into the future.

Once we have a solid understanding of your damages, we can tell you what your bus accident case is truly worth.

We explained this to Louise and Christopher, and they nodded and agreed that it made sense.

How long will my bus accident injury claim take?

Christopher next asked, “How long will it take for my Grandma to receive compensation for her bus accident claim?”

Again, we had to tell them this is difficult to determine in the beginning.

Our lawyer elaborated, “The timeline of your bus accident injury claim will depend upon two factors. The first is making sure we’ve accounted for all of your damages. The second is whether the insurance company is going to work with us or against us.”

We went on to tell them that once we understood the totality of Louise’s damages, we would have the information needed to send a demand letter to the insurance company.

“If the insurance company is agreeable and works with us toward a fair settlement, we can resolve your case quickly. Sometimes, however, insurance companies are not cooperative. In that case, we’ll take your case to court.”

We assured Louise that if the case did go to trial, she needn’t worry. We prepare every case as if it’s going to trial from the start.

This is another reason it is very important to hire a trial lawyer who is experienced in personal injury.

We assured Louise that hiring an experienced bus accident trial attorney would get her the best result.

Louise and Christopher agreed with our assessment and retained our law office. Today, we can happily say that Louise received an award that was six times the amount that was initially offered by the insurance company.

A few weeks after Louise came home from the hospital, Christopher invited Albert Johnson to dinner to thank him for being there for his grandma. Albert was very happy to see the joyful sparkle back in Louise’s eyes and remains friends with Louise and Christopher to this day.

Call our Kansas Bus Accident Attorneys Today

Whether a bus is public or private, the potential for serious damage is great.

Buses lack seatbelts and other safety features for passengers, and the standing position that riders must often adopt leaves them vulnerable to being thrown through the cabin. The sheer size and weight of buses pose a danger to any vehicle involved in a crash with a bus, as well.

We hope this article has helped you to understand your bus accident injury claim. Though each case is unique, avoiding these common mistakes will strengthen every personal injury case. Call our office today so we can answer any questions you have during a free consultation.

You don’t have to go through this alone. Contact us for free information today.