Personal Injury Law

School bus accident reminder, be safe not sorry

By Internal Administrator

The Des Moines Register reports on a van crashing into a school bus sending the driver and four children to an area hospital.

Bus accidents can cause hidden injuries to children that parents and doctors find difficult to see. We recently represented several children involved in a bus accident. In that situation a Bremer County dump truck being driven by a Bremer County employee t-boned a big yellow school bus as it approached from the right on a county highway. The children were grade school through high school ages.  Some had difficult time explaining exactly what occurred and what they struck inside the bus. One in particular later developed problems that needed surgical attention. We would warn all parents to be in no rush to settle these claims. Be cautious and mindful of the long-term medical effects those hard surfaces in the buses interior can cause that don't immediately show up. (Vehicle Safety Firm website) The previous estimates of how many children receive emergency room care are double previous estimates.

"CHICAGO - New national data show school bus-related accidents send 17,000 U.S. children to emergency rooms each year, more than double the number in previous estimates that only included crashes.

Nearly one-fourth of the accidents occur when children are boarding or leaving school buses, while crashes account for 42 percent, the new research shows.

Slips and falls on buses, getting jostled when buses stop or turn suddenly, and injuries from roughhousing are among other ways kids get hurt on school buses, the data found."

Children can hide physical injuries for various reasons some trivial and others more serious. If a child sport star is in fear of being benched they may hide their injuries to avoid losing their starting position. If the child were to play injured it can later complicate the medical causation issue in the legal case.  After the child engages in a sport, being able to prove which injuries were from the bus accident may be impossible. It's always better to follow the doctor's advice, don't push the doctor for a release, question the children, keep a close eye on the child for signs of pain and be cautious with giving permission to play contact sports.

The best advice is to keep kids home and out of contact sports until sufficient time has passed to know if they were injured in the bus wreck.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on April 15, 2008 (boomark / email).