Because it lacks an efficient subway system, the streets in Baltimore are filled with buses, and that makes bus accidents more likely. If you are injured while riding on a bus in the Baltimore area, after you’ve had a medical exam, contact a Maryland bus accident attorney immediately.
Every day across this nation, tens of thousands of working people rely on public bus systems for affordable and safe transportation. In Baltimore alone, thousands ride the buses every day, including teens and schoolchildren; for many people of all ages, it is their only transportation.
The City of Baltimore, however, has a sad history of deadly bus crashes. In 2016, a fatal bus accident between a school bus and a Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) bus in Baltimore left six people dead and ten injured. Five of those who died were MTA passengers.
What are your rights if you are injured while you are riding a Maryland Transit Administration bus in Baltimore? What steps should you take if you are injured? Can you recover compensation for your medical costs and related losses? Keep reading. Those questions are about to be answered.
In urban settings like Baltimore, accidents involving public buses kill and injure dozens of innocent bus riders every year. Catastrophic bus wrecks can cause severe personal injuries, even permanent disability, and lasting emotional damage.
If you are injured in a bus accident, you will need an attorney who can investigate the accident and your injury, scrutinize the police and MTA accident reports, identify the parties responsible, and advocate effectively for the full compensation amount that you are entitled to by Maryland law.
If you are injured while riding a municipal bus, you can bring a personal injury lawsuit against the Maryland Transit Administration, but like most lawsuits against government agencies, there are special rules that will apply.
Of course, seeking medical attention is your first priority after any accident. If you do not have an immediate medical examination, a latent or hard-to-detect injury could emerge days or even weeks later as a serious medical condition.
Additionally, an immediate medical examination provides documentation of your injury – documentation that you will need to establish a personal injury claim. The importance of obtaining an immediate medical examination after a bus accident cannot be overstated.
After a bus crash, and after you’ve had a medical exam, your next priority is speaking to the right Maryland bus accident lawyer. Your lawyer needs to examine the evidence while it’s fresh and question the witnesses before their memories fade, so contact your attorney without delay.
Your personal injury attorney will address all of your concerns and answer all of your legal questions. Your attorney will explain how the law pertains to your individual personal injury claim and will provide the aggressive legal representation that you will need.
The next step is sending a letter to the MTA explaining why you believe that the MTA or an MTA employee was negligent and responsible for your injury. Your lawyer will help you draft and submit this letter, which must be submitted within one year of the accident.
If you miss this deadline, you may in some cases still move forward with your personal injury case, but a court may choose to dismiss your lawsuit, and the Maryland Transit Administration may charge that missing the deadline means that you were not very seriously injured.
After your notification letter is received, the MTA will launch its own investigation of your complaint and – as you may have guessed – that investigation may last for months. In most cases, you will want to wait for that investigation to end before you formally file your lawsuit.
However, Maryland’s statute of limitations for all personal injury cases is three years, so if the MTA investigation is lengthy, you may need to file your lawsuit before the investigation concludes. Your attorney will know when to file your lawsuit and will keep you advised.
If your lawsuit eventually prevails, there is no limit to the amount of damages that the Maryland Transit Administration may be obligated to pay you in compensation, although Maryland does cap the total amount of “noneconomic” damages in personal injury cases.
A bus accident is not necessarily the driver’s fault. Other cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians frequently cause bus accidents. Poor weather, defective bus parts, and poorly designed streets and highways also cause bus collisions.
Determining the cause of your accident and injury will be one of your attorney’s priority tasks, because the party or parties who are liable for the accident and for your injury must be identified before your case can move forward.
Some of the injuries sustained in bus accidents may be catastrophic or disabling. A traumatic brain injury, for example, could disable you for years or for the rest of your life. A severe spinal cord injury could disable you for life and cost several million dollars over a lifetime.
Before you select an attorney, ask the attorney these questions: Do you have experience representing bus accident victims? Have you represented victims who were catastrophically injured or permanently disabled? What compensation did you obtain for those clients?
Public bus accidents are always complicated. A variety of parties are involved – injured passengers, drivers, people in other vehicles, and pedestrians as well as the governmental entity that manages the buses.
With so many parties involved, it is often difficult to determine liability for bus accidents. However, as your lawyer gathers evidence and interrogates witnesses, the facts will slowly begin to emerge, and the liable parties may then be held accountable.
If you were injured while you were riding a Maryland Transit Administration bus in Baltimore, you are entitled by Maryland law to compensation for your injuries and other losses. It may take some time. You must meet the deadlines and have the right lawyer working on your behalf.
Nevertheless, Maryland law is on the side of the injured victims of negligence. If you have been injured, and if you have the right medical documentation, meet the deadlines, and have the right Maryland bus accident attorney working on your behalf, you can expect to be compensated.