When a child is injured in a Texas school bus accident, several parties may be liable. These include the school district that runs the bus, a private bus company, another driver, the bus manufacturer, a parts maker, or the government entity responsible for the road. The cause of the crash or injury decides which party is responsible. It also decides which rules apply. A claim against a public school district goes through the Texas Tort Claims Act. That law requires notice within six months, limits which claims can go forward, and caps damages.
The good news is that school buses remain one of the safest ways for children to travel. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) consistently shows that school-transportation-related crashes make up well under 1% of fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States. Most people killed in these crashes are occupants of other vehicles. Pedestrians, including children walking to and from bus stops, face more risk than students riding inside the bus.
How School Bus Injuries Happen
Many school bus accidents involve collisions with other vehicles, but children can also be seriously hurt without a crash. Common situations include:
- Collisions between the bus and a car, truck, or other vehicle, caused by the bus driver, the other driver, or both
- Whiplash and similar soft tissue trauma sustained when a school bus makes a sudden start or stop
- Injuries suffered when a school bus takes a turn or corner at too high a rate of speed
- Falls while boarding or leaving the bus, including falls on wet steps and injuries from a closing door
- Injuries to pedestrians hit by a school bus, or by a driver who illegally passes a stopped bus, at or near a bus stop
How the injury happened matters. For example, a claim against a Texas school district generally arises from how the bus was driven or used. On the other hand, if a defective part caused the injury, such as a door that closed on a child or a faulty brake, the bus manufacturer or parts maker may be liable for a product defect.The facts of the incident can therefore decide whether a claim against the district is available at all.
Parties That May Share Responsibility
Responsible parties might therefore include the bus driver and school district, a private bus company, another motorist, a manufacturer, or a government entity that maintains the road. More than one party can share fault for the same accident. In a school bus accident claim, as with any personal injury claim based on negligence, the injured person generally must show that a party failed to use reasonable care and that this failure caused injury or loss.
The Bus Driver and the School District
The bus driver may have been speeding, driving without adequate rest, distracted by a phone, taking medication that impaired their ability to drive and respond, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The driver may also have ignored traffic laws or failed to take roadway or weather conditions into account. When the driver works for a public school district, the claim is generally brought against the district rather than against the driver personally. Records about the district’s driver training, background checks, and bus maintenance can all matter. They can help show what went wrong. Special rules and limitations, discussed below, apply to claims against a school district under the Texas Tort Claims Act.
A Private Bus Company or Private School
Some Texas school districts hire private companies to run their bus routes. Private schools, day care centers, and churches also often run their own buses or vans. These private operators generally do not have governmental immunity. The Texas Tort Claims Act’s definition of a government employee excludes independent contractors and their employees. A claim against a private bus company is therefore typically a standard personal injury negligence claim.
Under a legal rule called respondeat superior, an employer is responsible for an employee’s negligence on the job. A private bus company can therefore be liable for its driver’s negligence. It can also be liable for its own failures in hiring, training, supervising, or maintaining its vehicles. These claims are not subject to the Tort Claims Act’s six-month notice requirement or its damage caps.
Another Driver
Another motorist may be responsible if they violated traffic laws, causing or contributing to the accident. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any impact. Suppose a driver cuts off the bus and the bus driver has to take evasive action or slam on the brakes. The driver who created the hazard may be liable for the injuries passengers suffer.
These claims are typically negligence claims presented to the at-fault driver’s liability insurance company. When the other driver was uninsured or left the scene, the family’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage may apply, depending on the policy.
The Bus Manufacturer or Parts Maker
If the bus had design or manufacturing flaws that caused or contributed to the accident, or made injuries worse, the family may be able to bring a product liability claim against the manufacturer. Examples include defective brakes, tires, steering parts, doors, or emergency exits.
Texas limits claims against sellers that did not make the product. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 82.003, a seller that did not manufacture the product is generally not liable. Exceptions apply, such as when the seller took part in the design, installed the defective part, altered the product, or actually knew about the defect.
The Entity Responsible for the Road or Property
A city, county, or the State of Texas may be responsible when a road defect or broken traffic signal contributed to the crash. The Texas Tort Claims Act allows some claims based on dangerous road conditions, including special defects such as excavations or obstructions on a roadway. It also allows claims based on traffic signals that were not repaired within a reasonable time after the government received notice of the problem. Different damage caps apply to these entities. Claims against cities and the state are capped at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence. Claims against other local governments, such as counties, are capped at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence.
Some accidents happen on school property, such as in a parking lot or loading zone. A claim against a school district based only on the condition of that property is generally not available, because the Texas Tort Claims Act allows claims against school districts only for injuries arising from an employee’s operation or use of a motor vehicle. If a district employee was driving a bus or other district vehicle when the accident happened, a claim may still be possible even though it occurred on school property.
How the Texas Tort Claims Act Limits Claims Against School Districts
A Texas public school district can be held liable for a bus injury only when the injury arises from an employee’s operation or use of a motor vehicle. School districts otherwise have governmental immunity, which is legal protection from lawsuits unless the Texas Legislature waives it. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.051, the Tort Claims Act operates to waive immunity for school districts only as to motor vehicle accidents. Section 101.021(1) allows a claim when three conditions are met. First, the employee was acting within the scope of employment. Second, the injury arose from the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle. Third, the employee would be personally liable under Texas law.
In practice, the bus must be more than the place where the injury happened. In LeLeaux v. Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District (1992), a student was hurt boarding a parked, empty bus. The Supreme Court of Texas held that her claim against the district could not go forward because the injury did not arise from the bus’s operation or use. By contrast, injuries caused by how a driver drove, braked, turned, or handled the door while children were boarding are more likely to fall within the waiver.
Claims that rest only on a district’s hiring, training, or supervision decisions generally fall outside the waiver. The same is true of claims based only on the condition of school property. Open-enrollment charter schools generally have the same immunity as school districts under Texas Education Code Section 12.1056.
Damage Caps and Other Limits on School District Claims
Section 101.023(b) caps a school district’s liability at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per single occurrence for bodily injury or death. The per-occurrence cap means that when several students are hurt in one crash, all of their claims share the same $300,000 limit. Section 101.024 also bars exemplary damages (punitive damages meant to punish the wrongdoer) against a governmental unit.
These caps do not limit claims against private parties, such as another driver, a private bus company, or a manufacturer. This is one reason it matters to identify every party that may share responsibility for causing a school bus accident.
What Deadlines Apply After a Texas School Bus Accident?
The two main deadlines are a six-month notice deadline for claims against a school district or other government entity and a two-year statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit. A product liability claim also has a separate outer time limit.
Six-Month Notice to a School District or Government Entity
Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.101, a school district or other governmental unit is entitled to notice of a claim no later than six months after the day of the incident. The notice must reasonably describe three things: the injury, the time and place of the incident, and the incident itself. A city’s charter may set an even shorter notice period.
The formal notice is not required if the government entity already had actual notice that the child was injured. However, courts often disagree over whether an entity had actual notice in the legal sense. Texas Government Code Section 311.034 treats notice and other statutory requirements as jurisdictional in suits against a governmental entity. As a result, missing the deadline can end the claim against the district. Families should not assume that a child’s age extends the six-month notice deadline.
Two-Year Statute of Limitations for a Lawsuit
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003 generally requires a personal injury lawsuit to be filed within two years after the injury. For the child’s own claim, Section 16.001 pauses (tolls) this deadline while the child is under 18. The two years therefore generally begin on the child’s 18th birthday. The parents’ claim for the child’s medical expenses works differently. It belongs to the parents and generally must be filed within two years of the accident.
Product Liability Statute of Repose
A product liability lawsuit—for example, a claim based on allegations that the bus had defective brakes—is also subject to Texas’s 15-year statute of repose under Section 16.012. A statute of repose is an outer time limit measured from the date the manufacturer or seller sold the product, not from the date of the injury. For an older bus, this limit can bar a product claim even when the two-year statute of limitations has not yet run. Exceptions exist, including for certain written warranties of a longer useful life.
The Child’s Claim and the Parents’ Claim Are Separate
A school bus injury often creates two separate claims, one belonging to the child and one belonging to the parents. The child’s claim covers damages such as physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, loss of future earning capacity, and medical care expected after age 18. The parents’ claim covers the child’s medical expenses before age 18. This is because Texas Family Code Section 151.001 makes parents responsible for their child’s medical care.
The two claims can have different deadlines, as explained above. They also often involve different evidence, such as medical bills for the parents’ claim and long-term medical opinions for the child’s claim.
Steps Parents Can Take After a School Bus Accident
Parents can protect a possible claim by getting the child medical care, reporting the injury to the school district in writing, and collecting records before they are lost. Helpful records often include:
- Medical records and bills, including notes from any visit to the school nurse
- The Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report (Form CR-3), if police responded to a crash
- Bus camera video, which may be recorded over after a period of time
- Names and contact information for students, parents, and others who saw what happened
Families can request district records, such as video, incident reports, and driver records, under the Texas Public Information Act (Texas Government Code Chapter 552). The district may withhold some records under exceptions in that law, such as those involving student privacy or pending litigation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Texas School Bus Accidents
1. Can a parent sue the school bus driver personally in Texas?
Usually not, when the driver works for a public school district. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.106(f), a lawsuit against a government employee for conduct within the scope of the job is treated as a suit against the employee in an official capacity only. If the driver files a motion, the court must dismiss the driver unless the family amends the lawsuit within 30 days to name the school district instead. The rule is different when a private bus company employs the driver.
2. Does the six-month notice deadline apply if a private company ran the bus?
Generally, no. The six-month notice requirement in Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 101.101 applies to claims against governmental units, such as school districts, cities, and counties. A private bus contractor is not a governmental unit. A negligence claim against the company generally follows the two-year statute of limitations in Section 16.003, with tolling for a child’s own claim until age 18. Many accidents involve both public and private parties, though. If a district also shares responsibility, the notice deadline still applies to the claim against the district.
3. Who is responsible if a driver illegally passes a stopped school bus and hits a child?
The driver who passed the bus can be held responsible through a negligence claim. Texas Transportation Code Section 545.066 requires a driver approaching a school bus that is stopped with its visual signals on to stop. The driver must stay stopped until the bus moves again, the signals turn off, or the bus driver signals them to proceed. A violation of that law can be used as evidence of negligence. The claim is typically presented to the driver’s liability insurer. Bus camera footage, witness statements, and the crash report can help show whether the driver broke the law.
4. Does a parent need court approval to settle a child’s injury claim?
Generally, yes, if the settlement is meant to finally resolve the child’s own claim. Under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 44, a parent can file suit as the child’s “next friend,” meaning the adult who represents a minor in court. However, a court typically must approve a minor’s settlement for it to bind the child. When the parent’s interests may conflict with the child’s, the court may appoint a guardian ad litem under Rule 173 to protect the child’s interests. The court also decides how the child’s funds are protected until adulthood.
Contact Bailey & Galyen About a School Bus Accident
Since 1982, Bailey & Galyen has served clients across Texas with large-firm resources and personal attention. Contact Bailey & Galyen to ask questions about a child’s school bus injury and learn what options may be available. The firm offers free consultations for personal injury matters, and someone is available 24/7 to help you get started.
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