Bus Accident Claims*

Bus accidents in Ireland often attract the headlines because of the number of casualties involved. Although in terms of kilometres travelled on the roads in Ireland, travelling by bus remains the safest option of any mode of road transport, when bus accidents occur they affect a significantly larger number of people.

Some of these bus accidents may be not need to involve collisions. A bus company has a legal responsibility to ensure the safety of its passengers at all times, and if injuries are sustained through excessive braking and acceleration, dangerous cornering or faulty equipment, then you should be able to make a claim for personal injury compensation against the bus company.

One of the most common injuries sustained in bus accidents is whiplash – caused by the aforementioned rapid braking and acceleration and replicating the effect of being hit from behind in a car. Although often not as severe as in a vehicle collision, some incidents have lead to passengers being thrown from their seats and sustaining quite serious whiplash injuries or obtaining bad head injuries.

However bus accidents have occurred and how slight the injuries may appear at first, it is often advisable in cases of driver negligence to call the Gardai and have an ambulance attend to treated yourself and any other injured passengers. If neither the Gardai nor an ambulance attends, make sure you have a precautionary medical examination at your destination.

Compensation Claims for Bus Accidents

Once you have received a medical examination, you should record the date and time of your injury with the name of the bus company, route number and bus registration. Although the Gardai collate witness statements after bus accidents, it will be useful in your claim for compensation if you also collect as many witnesses’ details as possible.

One consideration that you may need to think about is that with the potential for a large number of compensation claims, insurance companies- representing the bus company – may attempt to encourage victims of bus accidents to accept quick compensation settlements, irrespective of how inappropriate they are in relation to the injuries that have been sustained.

This is one of the main reasons why it is in the public´s best interest to speak with a specialist personal injury claims solicitor after any bus accidents. Whether you choose to act together in your claims for compensation or as individuals, we offer a free advice telephone servicewhich you are welcome to call to discover exactly what procedures should be followed in the aftermath of bus accidents.

As everybody has different circumstances, and injuries sustained in bus accidents can affect different people in different ways, it is better to deal with each case individually, but as you will find when you call our legal claims advice helpline, there is no obligation on you to follow any of the options presented to you, and you can just use this service to obtain helpful and accurate advice. Call us now or if you cannot speak now please fill in the form below and we will call you back.

Our Promise to you:

What You Can Expect?

Because of the infrequency of bus accidents, we realise that they are a major psychological shock as well as a physical trauma, and you may well still be a little shaken at the time you call. We understand this and ask you to start by simply telling us what happened to you in the bus accident and what you have learnt from other people.

We will try to ascertain on the first conversation whether there is a claim which is worth your while to pursue, and give you a time span in which we expect it to be resolved. If the bus company´s insurance company has already made an offer of settlement we will advise whether we consider it to be a fair and adequate amount.

If you subsequently choose to proceed with a claim, our solicitor will guide you through the best way to go about it and help fill any gaps in the formalities that are required. If you are acting on behalf of a group of victims, we will need to speak with each person individually in confidence.

Bus accidents can lead to some fairly severe injuries and, rather than just attempt to shrug them off, a quick medical examination will show whether any permanent damage has been sustained. If it has, it may lead to more serious health issues in the future if not treated.

If this is not a convenient time to call us right now, complete the call-back form below and one of our team will ring you when it is more suitable.