If you were injured in a bus accident in Allentown or the greater Lehigh Valley, get the justice you deserve
Take the first step towards getting your life back by scheduling a FREE consultation with Allentown’s leading bus accident lawyers at Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys
An Allentown bus accident attorney is here for you whenever you are ready. Across the country, Americans rely on buses to get where they need to go. According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Americans took 9.9 billion trips on public transportation last year. In fact, commuters take 34 million trips on buses, trains, and trolleys each work day. Allentown residents are no different. They travel by bus to work, school, appointments, and shopping centers every day. However, in the blink of an eye, a bus accident can change everything.
If you or someone you love suffered injuries caused by a catastrophic bus accident, Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys is here to help. For more than six decades, our bus crash lawyers have been fighting for accident victims and their families. Time and time again, our lawyers win big for those suffering from bus accident injuries. We believe that everyone deserves justice, so a consultation with a Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys lawyer is always free, and our policy is simple: you won’t pay us anything unless we win for you. That means you won’t pay us anything out of pocket. Call us today.
A personal injury law firm with deep Pennsylvania roots and a commitment to fighting for accident victims
At Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys, we are proud to be a family law firm from northeastern Pennsylvania. For over 60 years, our Allentown personal injury team has fought for accident victims and their families. We know how to take on the big insurance and transportation companies and we always fight to get our clients the maximum payments for their suffering. To learn more about the millions we won for our clients and what it means to have Allentown bus accident attorneys from Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys representing you, schedule your free consultation right away.
Allentown Bus Accidents FAQs
Q: How often do bus accidents occur in Allentown?
Although school buses, public transit buses, and coach buses make up a small percentage of vehicles on the road, they account for a significant percentage of crashes. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that there are about 63,000 bus collisions in the United States every year. According to the most recent NHTSA data, the number of large trucks and buses involved in fatal bus accidents increased 9% to 4,889. 17,000 school-age children are rushed to the emergency room each year to be treated for school bus accident injuries. The dangers of bus travel cannot be avoided by choosing not to take buses. In fact, the NHTSA reports that 72% of bus accident fatalities are passenger vehicle occupants, not those on the bus. If you or someone you love suffers a bus crash, make sure a premier Allentown bus accident lawyer is representing you by contacting Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys today.
Q: Why are there so many bus accidents and bus crash injuries in Allentown?
There is no one cause of bus accidents, and the circumstances surrounding every bus crash are different. However, certain bus features make these vehicles more likely to collide. Additionally, other aspects make injuries more likely.
Buses are larger than most other vehicles on the road.
Besides certain large commercial trucks, tractor-trailers, and 18-wheelers, buses are typically the largest vehicles on Pennsylvania’s highways and public roads. Their size makes them more difficult to control, turn, speed up, slow down, and stop. Buses often have large blind spots that make backing up and switching lanes less safe. When a bus crashes, its large mass and size does more damage and creates more severe injuries compared to a car accident.
Buses make frequent stops.
In part, buses crash more than other vehicles because buses behave differently than other vehicles. Buses make frequent stops along designated routes for passengers to on-board and get off. If a bus stops unexpectedly or other drivers are not paying close attention, they may collide with the bus or with a passenger. Furthermore, because of their frequent stops, busses are often changing lanes and navigating the most crowded areas of a city.
Bus passengers do not follow safety precautions used in other vehicles.
Bus passengers behave differently than passengers of other motor-vehicles. An occupant of a car or SUV typically wears a seatbelt. Car airbags deploy during a car accident to prevent injuries to the passenger. However, most school, commercial, coach, or public transit buses do not make these features available for passengers. Even when buses have preventative safety measures such as seatbelts, many passengers do not use them. Any bus accident attorney will always ask about the seatbelts in a personal injury case such as a bus crash.
Buses operate on the busiest roads and highways.
By design, buses travel to the most popular destinations along the busiest streets, roads, and highways. In Allentown, buses go to shopping malls, commercial centers, hospitals, city centers, tourist attractions, and residential neighborhoods. Trucks, cars, SUVs, bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians also use these areas, and the traffic volume increases the likelihood of an accident.
Q: If I am involved in a bus accident in Allentown, what should I do?
If you are involved in any collision involving a school bus, commuter bus, coach bus, or another large commercial vehicle, take the following steps:
Remain calm and stay in your vehicle if possible.
The moments following any accident are chaotic. The number of passengers and vehicles involved in a typical bus crash can make an accident even more confusing. Still, in order to safely and effectively navigate the crash scene and get the help you need, it is important not to panic. If it is safe to do so, stay in your vehicle.
Call 9-11 and file a police report.
After an accident, call 9-11 to summon police, ambulances, and firefighters. Once police responders arrive, make sure to file a police report and get a copy if possible. Write down the name and badge number of the responding officer and save this information someplace safe. Your bus accident attorney will need that report. Don’t let anyone talk you out of making a police report. They can be invaluable.
Take pictures.
Use your cellphone to photograph the accident scene, any damage to your vehicle or property, and any signs of injuries. It is also a good idea to email these photos to yourself and/or send them to a family member to make sure they will be saved. An injury lawyer will need those pictures as well to provide accurate legal advice.
Seek medical treatment.
In the wake of an accident, many injured passengers do not feel pain or think they are hurt so they do not seek medical treatment. However, once the adrenaline from the crash wears off, they realize they are seriously injured and have done additional damage by not going to the hospital right away. Even if you think you are fine, seek medical treatment after an accident. Save all medical forms and records.
Do not speak to another driver’s insurance company. Instead, file your own claim.
Never rely on another driver’s promise to file a report or claim with their insurance company. Do not speak directly to their insurance agent or the bus companies about what happened. Instead, contact your insurance provider and tell them about the accident. Make sure to give them a complete description of any damage or injuries and mention the bus companies that were involved. You should always speak to an attorney before discussing what happened with the bus company or someone else’s insurance company.
Contact a good Allentown bus accident lawyer.
At Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys, our bus accident lawyers have spent 60 years winning big for the victims of serious bus accidents. We take on the insurance and transportation industry players so that you can focus on healing and getting your life back. Our Allentown bus accident lawyers are recognized not only in Pennsylvania, but across the entire United States. We pride ourselves on being leaders in the field and working hard every day to win what our clients deserve. Don’t suffer any longer. Contact our Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys Allentown office to speak to a bus crash lawyer for FREE today.
What Are My Rights After a Bus Accident?
How do you know if you have legal rights after a bus accident? Bus accident victims are often confused on the best way forward, and that’s completely understandable. After a bus accident, it’s always best to speak to an attorney, and to do so as quickly as possible. It’s sometimes hard to tell whether you may have legal recourse. Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys’s attorneys have experience responding to bus accidents, and we can help you decide what your options are.
Often times, after a bus accident, a lawyer can help you prove that someone acted negligently. Negligence is a legal concept, and has a special meaning under the law. Typically, it just means that someone owed you a duty to act with a certain level of care, and they failed to act carefully, which caused you injuries.
In Pennsylvania, there are four elements of a negligence claim: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
- Duty: this means that the defendant, the person who did wrong, owed you a duty not to cause harm. Whether a duty exists is a complex question. But generally, under the law, a person owes you a duty to not cause foreseeable harm by their actions. That means that you can hold a bus driver, or a bus company, responsible, because they owed you a duty as a passenger, pedestrian, or someone else on the road.
- Breach: to prove breach, you must prove that the wrongdoer failed to act according to a specific standard of care. Generally, all people must act as a reaonably prudent person would in any given situation. If a bus driver crashes because they weren’t paying attention, or if a bus company fails to maintain their buses as they should, they will have often times breached a duty.
- Causation: causation is simple in theory, but often a complex factual and legal issue. You must prove that the breach of a duty, what the wrongdoer did, caused your injuries. This can sometimes be difficult when it comes to medical injuries. That’s where expert witnesses come in.
- Damages: you must also prove that the breach of a duty caused you financial or emotional damages. This is where we must prove the amount of money involved.
Experienced lawyers know how to build a negligence case. Many different parties may have been negligent in causing a bus accident. At Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys, we can help you decide who you can hold responsible.
Why Do I Need A Lawyer?
Why do you need a lawyer? The right lawyer is always going to work to make sure your rights are protected in the wake of a bus accident. No matter how big or small, bus accidents have consequences, and there will be many players involved. You should be able to focus on getting medical care and dealing with any damage caused by the accident. Your lawyer can focus on holding the wrongdoer accountable.
Here are just a few reasons you shouldn’t try to navigate the aftermath of a bus accident alone:
Bus accidents are legally complex, given the number of players involved
Bus accidents involve many players, and many times each of these players is going to react to a bus accident by trying to minimize their own financial exposure. You need a lawyer to make sure you’re not left holding the bill for the damages caused by someone else’s wrongdoing.
Passengers, the bus driver, the driver of any other vehicle involved, the bus company, insurance companies, any government agency involved in the operation of the bus, the company that maintains the bus, and the company that makes any bus parts (just to name a few) all have a vested interest in the outcome of an accident. It’s hard to know which of these parties is responsible for the injuries you suffered. A lawyer can help you get to the bottom of it.
Lawyers can help resolve a dispute before it really starts
Of course, lawyers are familiar fighting cases in court. But, sometimes the best option is to resolve a dispute well before a formal lawsuit. Whether you’re fighting with your own insurance company, someone else’s, or an individual party involved in the crash, getting a lawyer involved early can help get the case resolved faster. Sometimes, lawyers can do this just by being involved in negotiations. After all, people are sometimes more forthcoming if they know that you are armed and ready to take a dispute to court.
Other times, we can help by writing a formal demand letter. This is essentially a letter explaining your claim, the reasoning behind your entitlement to money, and the underlying law. Sometimes, all it takes is someone who can speak the insurance company’s language, or who can get through to the lawyers representing the person who did you wrong. These letters sometimes resolve cases long before a formal court case could.
Lawyers can investigate your claim and gather evidence
Because of the complexity of bus accidents, there can be a lot of ground work to cover. After an accident, you should focus on moving forward. Let a lawyer—who is used to dealing with insurance companies and government entities after an accident—deal with investigating what happened.
A lawyer can identify and interview witnesses. Fellow passengers, other drivers, bystanders, and other witnesses can have invaluable information. We’ll find them, interview them, and preserve their testimony for use in court.
We’ll also gather documents and other physical evidence. This can be photographs of the bus, the scene of the accident, and any damage caused. Furthermore, we can track down surveillance video and other camera footage of the accident; this can be used both when advocating against insurance companies and in court. Additionally, sometimes a bus accident is caused by faulty bus maintenance or a malfunction with a bus part. These cases require us to track down maintenance records and other reports. We know where to look, and have experience tracking this evidence down for our clients.
Furthermore, sometimes you will need an expert witness. This could be a medical expert who can testify to your injuries and how they will impact your life. It could also be an expert tasked with calculating the different ways the bus accident has cost you money. These witnesses can be the difference between winning and losing. Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys has worked with experts across Pennsylvania, and the country, to support our clients. We know how to do it effectively and efficiently.
Lawyers will represent you in court and in negotiations with other parties
You should never have to go up against the powerful entities (bus companies, insurance companies, and sometimes the government) who stand in your way after a bus accident alone. Sometimes, these parties will argue that you are at fault, even when you weren’t. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Furthermore, sometimes there are unique challenges to recovery, for example when a school or city bus is involved. An experienced Allentown bus accident lawyer can aggressively represent your interests.
At Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys, we have experience working with, and against, many of the repeat players. We can make sure these powerful entities don’t overpower your interests in any negotiations or informal discussions. And, if it comes time to fight in court, Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys’s attorneys are nationally recognized for their skills in the courtroom. We’re ready to put them to work to get you the compensation you deserve.
How Long Will My Case Take?
This, unfortunately, depends. Our lawyers will always work to make sure your case gets resolved as quickly as possible. We know that after an accident, you often need the money owed to you to move forward. That’s why we’ll do our best to resolve your claim through early negotiations or a demand letter. Sometimes, when we present your demand up front and can explain why you’re entitled to compensation in an informal way, we can get fast results. In those cases, we can resolve your case within a few weeks to a few months.
If we have to take to proceed to formal court proceedings, things may take longer. Litigation speed is of course impacted by the court’s schedule, and we can only control so much. But we’ll never letter our opponents drag their feet. That being said, litigating in court can take up to a year, and maybe more.
How Much Is My Case Worth?
How much money you recover from a bus accident can depend on many factors. During a free consultation, Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys can help you get a good idea of what your damages might be. However, the ultimate amount you can recover will depend on: (1) the type and severity of your injuries; (2) whether your injuries are permanent; (3) whether you were forced to miss work, and for how long; (4) if you’ll be able to return to your job after you recover; (5) whether you were in any way at fault for the accident or your injuries; (6) whether any of your property was damages or destroyed by the bus accident.
An experienced bus accident lawyer can help you recover both economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic damages are meant to compensate you for things like: past and future medical expenses, past and future lost wages, rehabilitation and recovery expenses, nursing care, and property damage. Expert witness are often very helpful in calculating the economic damages you’ve suffered, and at Munley law, we’re experts at recovering those damages. We do this not only to lessen the financial burden of an accident, but to make sure you’re taken care of in the years to come.
Noneconomic injuries are more intangible, and can include money to compensate: the pain and suffering you endured as a result of the accident, a reduced quality of life, disfigurement, and many other types of impairments a serious injury might cause.
You may have heard the term “punitive damages” before. Sometimes, punitive damages are available after a bus accident. These damages are meant to punish the wrongdoer(s) for their bad actions. These damages are often difficult to obtain under the law, but in the right case, they are a powerful weapon. If you think a bus accident was caused by someone’s intentional acts, or that someone was acting recklessly (meaning they knew about a risk and acted anyway), let one of our attorneys know. We can discuss whether your case may qualify for punitive damages.
What If I May Have Been At Fault For The Accident?
Are you worried you might share some fault for an accident? That’s ok. First, it’s natural to think the worst and blame yourself after an accident. You also shouldn’t necessarily trust what a bus company, insurance company, or other involved party tells you about what happened. Even still, if you’re worried that you might have in some way caused an accident, or made it worse, you should give us a call as soon as possible.
You can still recover some money. In Pennsylvania, just because you may share some blame with someone else, as long as you aren’t overwhelmingly at fault, our lawyers can likely still help get you some of the money you deserve. That being said, be sure to tell your lawyer about your concerns. It’s always best that your attorney knows everything; that’s the only way they can help you! Generally, nothing you tell your attorney can be used against you, so you can talk to us openly. Just let us know if you have any concerns.
Our Best Advice? Give Us A Call
At the end of the day, Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys is here to help. Our compassionate and experienced lawyers have been doing this work for decades. You aren’t just another bus accident to us; we’ll listen to what happened, explain your rights, and give you your options for moving forward.
Call us today, or fill out the form on this website. Contacting us is completely free and won’t obligate you to do anything. What’s more, you won’t pay us unless (and until) we win, and any payment we get comes out of the money we recover for you. Nothing comes out of your pocket, ever.
