By Michael R. Jackson, Shareholder
A New York Tour Bus injury can spoil your entire trip. You look forward to your trip to New York City. Your family buys tickets for a double-decker tour bus. You hop aboard, climb the stairs to the second level, sit down, and begin taking in the sights. Suddenly, while you are enjoying the sights that New York City has to offer, a tree branch catches on the upper window, releases suddenly, and hits you with significant force without warning.
One of our German clients experienced just such a New York tour bus injury, suffering a head injury and resulting in a long-planned and once-in-a-lifetime family trip from Germany to New York City being entirely ruined. Medical treatment continued for the head injury in Germany, and resulted in a lengthy period of time for our client with ongoing persistent headaches. She also felt a form of post-traumatic stress disorder due to the manner in which this injury occurred.
Experienced U.S. Personal Injury Attorneys
Jackson Law International has offices in both the United States and in Germany, and our attorneys are highly experienced in personal injury law. Our German-speaking clientele, in particular, turns to us because we blend nearly 30 years of individual experience in personal injury law with native German-speaking proficiency to ensure that nothing is lost in translation.
Our attorneys have appeared in cases throughout the United States, achieving multi-million-dollar results in several U.S. states.
Experience Matters
Finding an experienced litigator is critical to advance your case. For example, in this particular case involving a New York tour bus injury, an understanding of New York law was important. For example, due to loopholes in New York state law, double-decker tour buses do not have to follow the same regulations and laws as other kinds of buses. For instance, tour bus companies are not required to report accidents to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and drivers do not have to undergo regular medical and driving tests. However, these factors, in addition to the size and design of double-decker tour buses, present a number of potential dangers and unique hazards against which drivers and a tour bus company must safeguard. For example, those risk factors include open-top busses that leave passengers exposed, for example, to the elements or hitting a low hanging overpass, due to the driver forgetting the height of the bus or underestimating the amount of available space, or, as in this case, other hazards.
New York City double-decker sightseeing buses are considered municipal passenger transportation. As a common carrier, the tour bus and its driver have the duty to exercise reasonable care and diligence to keep the deck of the bus reasonably safe from objects outside of the bus such as overhanging tree branches and low-hanging traffic lights and signs.
Similarly, bus passengers expect that, in return for the price of the fare, they will be taken to their destinations safely – especially on a tour bus, where the passenger is in an unknown locale with different / unknown conditions and expects to be informed about issues of security and safety by a tour bus company.
Therefore, the tour bus is subject to the standard of care imposed upon a common carrier to act as a reasonably prudent carrier would under similar circumstances. The tour bus company and its driver knew of the unusually dangerous condition posed by tree branches coming into contact with the windshield on the second floor of the tour bus and hurtling towards its passengers, and had the duty to warn their passengers of unusual and dangerous conditions.
Utilizing these arguments, we were able to secure a favorable settlement amount for our client in her New York Tour Bus injury case.
Contact
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Our international experience allows us to assist clients in international matters, and the firm looks forward to the opportunity to put that experience to work for you.
Feel free to contact us to discuss your case.
© Jackson Law International 2021