What Could My Bus Accident Claim Be Worth?
If you have been injured by a bus or whilst on a bus, you may be eligible to make a bus accident claim. However, you will have to prove negligence. This will mean showing how a duty of care that was owed to you was breached, causing you harm that could have been avoided.
Bus Accident Claim Guide
In this guide, we will establish the necessary criteria you must meet to qualify for a personal injury claim. Additionally, We will also provide some examples of evidence you could provide to help prove liability for a road traffic accident. Furthermore, we will discuss how one of our No Win No Fee solicitors could help you with your claim.
The focus of this guide will be to look at how compensation is calculated for a bus accident claim. We will demonstrate how two potential heads of claim can make up your settlement award for your personal injury claim and also the evidence that might be needed as proof.
You can contact one of our advisors to discuss your potential personal injury claim. They could provide you with free advice for your claim, as well as answer your questions.
To contact one of our advisors:
- Call us on 0800 073 8804
- Message us using our live chat feature.
- Start your claim online.
Select A Section
- What Could My Bus Accident Claim Be Worth?
- Liability For Slips And Falls On A Bus
- Road User’s Duty Of Care
- How To Prove Liability In A Bus Accident Claim
- Start Your Bus Accident Claim With Our Team
- Related No Win No Fee Road Accident Claim Guides
What Could My Bus Accident Claim Be Worth?
Following a successful bus accident claim, the suffering and pain your injury has caused you should be compensated with general damages.
Below is a table using the figures stated in the 16th edition of the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This is a document that is used by various legal professionals to help them value claims, as it lists compensation guidelines for different physical and psychological injuries.
However, the last two entries have been taken from the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021 and are applicable to your whiplash injuries.
Please remember that the factors of your claim could affect the amount you receive. Therefore, please only use this table as a guide.
Compensation Table
| Injury | Notes | Compensation Guidelines |
|---|---|---|
| Very Severe Brain Injury | The person will show little response that is meaningful to their environment. Level of award will depend on: degree of insight, life expectancy, and other factors. | £282,010 to £403,990 |
| Severe Back Injuries (i) | Severe damage to spinal cord and nerve root damage leading to a series of serious consequences. | £91,090 to £160,980 |
| Amputation of Arms – Loss of One Arm (ii) | Above-elbow amputation. It may be difficult to us a prosthesis with a shorter stump, which could affect the amount awarded. | £109,650 to £130,930 |
| Severe Hip/Pelvis Injury (ii) | An example injury is a fracture dislocation of the pelvis causing impotence and damage to both the ischial and pubic rami. | £61,910 to £78,400 |
| Serious Hand Injuries | Injuries that have reduced the hand’s capacity to about 50 per cent. | £29,000 to £61,910 |
| Wrist injuries (b) | Injuries that result in significant disability that is permanent but where some useful movement remains. | £24,500 to £39,170 |
| Less Serious Leg Injuries (i) | Fractures that make a reasonable recovery but the person is left with a mental implant, a limp and/or other issues. Or serious soft tissue injuries. | £17,960 to £27,760 |
| Other Arm Injuries (d) | Simple fractures of the forearm. | £6,610 to £19,200 |
| Whiplash injuries and minor psychological distress 2 (1)(b) | Injury lasts more than 18 months but no more than 24 months. | £4,345 |
| Whiplash injuries and minor psychological distress 2(1)(b) | Injury lasts more that 15 months but no more than 18 months. | £3,100 |
The Whiplash Reform Programme
Due to the introduction of the Whiplash Reform Programme, how certain low-value road traffic accident claims are made in England and Wales has changed.
Per the reforms, if you have been injured in a road traffic accident as a driver or passenger of a vehicle over the age of 18 and your injury is valued at £5,00 or less, the way your claim is made has changed. This includes whiplash injuries.
Additionally, your whiplash injuries will be valued in line with the tariff that is set out in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021. However, since this tariff only applies to whiplash injuries, any other injuries you have suffered that are not outlined in the tariff will be valued in the traditional way.
Claiming For Financial Losses
Additionally, you could also be awarded special damages. This aims to compensate you for any financial losses you have experienced that have been directly caused by your injury. Some examples of the losses special damages could compensate you for include:
- Travel expenses.
- Medical care/medication.
- Past and future loss of earnings.
Contact our advisors if you have any additional questions about making a bus accident claim.
Liability For Slips And Falls On A Bus
Your injuries may have been caused by a slip, trip or fall on a bus. If so, you may be able to make a bus accident claim.
Per the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 (OLA), those in charge of public spaces owe a duty of care. Per this duty, they must take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of members of the public who are using that space for its intended purposes. This duty of care extends to bus companies.
Some examples of injuries you could suffer on a bus as a passenger include:
- A spillage hasn’t been cleaned on the walkway of a bus, causing you to slip and suffer a knee injury.
- You could fall over due to a bus driver suddenly swerving without a sufficient reason
- You could fall down the stairs due to a faulty handrail or due to there being a trip hazard on the stairs that wasn’t cleared away.
However, to be able to make a personal injury claim against the bus company for injuries caused by poor health and safety on the vehicle, you will need to show how the bus company breached their duty of care.
Contact our advisors to learn more about bus accident claims made against a bus company.
Road Users’ Duty Of Care
Additionally, you could make a personal injury claim as a bus passenger in a road traffic accident. Very often, as a passenger in a road accident, you are unlikely to be at fault. It may be that the bus driver or another road user is at fault for the accident taking place that caused you to be injured. Also, you could be a pedestrian who is involved in a bus accident.
A road user’s duty of care is outlined under the Road Traffic Act 1988. This is applicable to all road users, including motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Per this duty, you must use the roads responsibly and safely to prevent injury to yourself or others. The Highway Code provides guidance and rules to road users that must be followed.
Generally, when road users are making personal injury claims for a road traffic accident, they will need to provide sufficient evidence to prove 3 key points;
- That you were owed a duty of care by a road user,
- This duty was breached,
- And this caused you to be injured.
Contact our advisors today if you have been injured by a bus or as a passenger on a bus to see whether you could make a bus accident claim.
How To Prove Liability In A Bus Accident Claim
To help strengthen your claim, you could provide as much sufficient evidence as possible. Providing the correct evidence could help prove who was liable for the accident and the injuries you suffered.
Some examples of the evidence you could provide to help support your bus accident claim include:
- CCTV footage, dashcam footage or other videos of the accident.
- A copy of your medical records stating the physical or psychological injury that you have suffered.
- A police report if they were called to the scene of the accident.
- Contact details of eyewitnesses who could make a statement at a later date.
Contact one of our advisors to discuss your potential claim today. Furthermore, they may also connect you with one of our solicitors who could help you with gathering evidence.
Start Your Bus Accident Claim With Our Team
You can discuss your potential bus accident claim with one of our advisors. If they believe you may be eligible to make a claim, they could connect you with one of our solicitors. Our solicitors have years of experience handling various personal injury claims and could help you with yours. Additionally, they may offer to work with you on a No Win No Fee basis under the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement.
Some of the benefits of making your claim with a No Win No Fee solicitor include:
- You will usually not be expected to pay anything upfront or during the claim process to your solicitor for the services they will provide.
- Furthermore, you will not have to pay them for the services they provided if the claim is unsuccessful.
- However, your solicitor will take a success fee from your compensation award if they succeed with your claim. The percentage your solicitor can take as the success fee is capped by law.
Contact one of our advisors today to discuss your potential claim further or if you have any additional questions about working with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors.
Talk To Our Team
To discuss your claim, you can contact one of our advisors today. One of our friendly advisors can offer you free advice and answer any of the questions you may have about starting a claim. Additionally, they could connect you with one of our solicitors if they believe you could make a claim.
To contact one of our advisors:
-
- Call us on 0800 073 8804
- Message us using our live chat feature.
- Start your claim online.
Related No Win No Fee Road Accident Claim Guides
Additional guides by us about personal injury claims:
- How to prove a slip and fall case.
- Can I make a vehicle passenger compensation claim?
- Can I claim compensation for an emergency braking accident on a bus?
- Our guide offers information on claiming for a rear end shunt accident. Learn more about the road traffic accident claims process.
Further information and resources:
- GOV.UK – Request CCTV footage of yourself.
- NHS – How to get your medical records.
- Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – Driving offences.
Additionally, you can contact our advisors today to see whether you may be able to make a bus accident claim.
