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Your Relative Died in a Bus Accident. What Happens Next?

Your Relative Died in a Bus Accident. What Happens Next?

Tragedy can strike without warning. Buses are huge vehicles with tremendous power to maim when their drivers lose control. Fatal motor coach injuries to passengers, pedestrians, and occupants of smaller vehicles are not uncommon.

If you have lost a loved one due to a fatal bus accident, there is no easy or quick solution to your suffering. Mourning is a process that takes time—and the length of time involved, and the nature of the grieving process itself, will be different for each person. Most people feel at least some impulse not to think about the incident. It will be hard, but you have to resist that impulse and assess your family’s long-term needs. That may require taking legal action.

Bus Accident Wrongful Death Claims

Lawyers use the term wrongful death when someone’s negligent or reckless behavior ends a life. This becomes grounds for a wrongful death lawsuit because of the harm done to the people left behind. Depending on specific state laws, family members, close friends, or the estate of the deceased person may be eligible to file a motor coach wrongful death claim.

Some families shy away from this legal right. “I don’t think we should profit from our loved one’s death,” they might say. “It wouldn’t be right.”

But holding the responsible person—or people—to account for his negligent behavior serves the cause of justice. It can also demand compensation for the following burdens that otherwise would fall heavily on the family:

  • Medical care for the final hours of the loved one’s life
  • Funeral and burial costs
  • Lost future earnings the bus accident victim would have brought to the family
  • Lost comfort, companionship, and guidance the decedent would have shared over the years
  • Psychological damage to and emotional suffering of those left behind
  • Punitive damages, where available, for especially abusive failures to value human life

Clearly this is not profiting from your loved one’s death but merely trying to minimize the long-term harm to your family from the horrible tragedy that has occurred.

Bus fatalities are special cases

No bus injury lawsuit can fill the emptiness left by the loss of a sister, wife, mother, or friend. But skillful work by a bus injury attorney can lessen the emotional and financial burdens you must deal with after the death of a family member.

Many attorneys will tell you that their experience as personal injury lawyers makes them ideal to handle your bus accident wrongful death claim. We disagree. The big motorcoach companies retain teams of lawyers to squash upstart injury lawyers who don’t handle commercial bus injuries regularly. We aren’t those guys. The bus companies know us, they know our record, and they know we have the background in bus injury law to take them on in the courtroom.

This article, was submitted by Jon Ostroff of Ostroff Godshall Injury and Accident Lawyers. If you have additional questions about a recent bus accident you or your family was a part of he invites you to call toll free at (484) 351-0350 to get answers to any questions with no obligation. They can answer questions about fatal bus accident cases from anywhere in the United States.