Fort Worth Bus Accident Lawyer

Most bus crashes in Fort Worth involve one of three operators: Trinity Metro, a school district, or a private charter or shuttle company. If it was Trinity Metro or a school bus, your claim is against a government body, written notice is due within six months, and recovery from that agency is capped at $100,000 per person. Those limits were set by a Fort Worth bus case, and they are why the first weeks after a crash matter more here than in an ordinary wreck. A private carrier has no cap and owes its passengers a high degree of care.

Our injury team works out of our office on Throckmorton Street in downtown Fort Worth, and Tarrant County is where we try our cases.

In Fort Worth Transportation Authority v. Rodriguez, 547 S.W.3d 830 (Tex. 2018), a pedestrian was struck and killed by a bus run by what is now Trinity Metro. At the time, the transit authority used two private companies to manage and operate its buses. The family sued all three. The Supreme Court of Texas held that because those companies were performing the transit authority’s governmental functions, a single $100,000 cap covered all three defendants together.

That ruling shapes every serious Trinity Metro case today. A family can lose a parent to a city bus and find that the agency’s total exposure is $100,000. The way to get past that ceiling is not to argue with the cap. It is to find who else caused the crash: a driver who cut off the bus, a company that maintained it, a manufacturer whose part failed, or a contractor that is not performing a governmental function. Those parties are not covered by the cap, and finding them is the work that decides what a Fort Worth bus case is worth.

Trinity Metro is a separate agency from the City of Fort Worth. If a city-owned vehicle, such as a garbage truck, a utility truck, or a police car, caused or contributed to a bus crash, that claim goes against the City. The Fort Worth City Charter requires written notice within 180 days, filed with the City’s Risk Management office at 200 Texas Street. Because Fort Worth is a municipality, its cap is higher than Trinity Metro’s: $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence. A single crash can carry two different notice processes and two different caps.

Fort Worth moves a lot of people by private bus: charter coaches to events at the Stockyards, Dickies Arena, and Texas Motor Speedway, airport and hotel shuttles serving DFW, church and youth-group vans, and intercity lines like Greyhound. A company that carries passengers for pay is a common carrier and owes them the care “that would be exercised by a very cautious and prudent person,” a standard the Supreme Court of Texas restated in Speed Boat Leasing, Inc. v. Elmer, 124 S.W.3d 210 (Tex. 2003).

Interstate passenger carriers with 16 or more seats must carry at least $5 million in coverage (49 C.F.R. § 387.33). A church van or hotel shuttle may carry a small fraction of that, and figuring out whether the owner’s, the operator’s, or the driver’s policy applies is often the hardest part of the case.

The first two weeks of a Fort Worth bus case look like this:

1. Preservation letters go out. Onboard and exterior bus video, GPS and dispatch data, and driver records are often kept only for a limited time unless someone demands them.
2. Public records requests go in. For Trinity Metro, a school district, or the City, we use the Texas Public Information Act alongside the claim process.
3. The notice of claim is filed. We prepare and send it ourselves so it says what the Tort Claims Act requires, to the right agency, well before the deadline.
4. We look for every other responsible party. Other drivers, contractors, maintenance vendors, and manufacturers, because in a capped case that is where the rest of the recovery is.
5. We get you treated. If a provider will not see you because of the crash, we help find one who will.

Most claims resolve without a trial. When one does not, the lawsuit is filed in the Tarrant County district courts at the Tom Vandergriff Civil Courts Building, 100 N. Calhoun Street, a few blocks from our office. For a sense of timing, see how long a personal injury case takes in Texas.

• Go to the ER if you are hurt. JPS Health Network in Fort Worth is Tarrant County’s Level I trauma center. Bus passengers often ride unbelted or standing, and injuries can be worse than they first feel.
• Get the Fort Worth police crash report number, plus the bus number, route, and operator name.
• Take photos of the bus, the scene, your injuries, and where you were sitting or standing.
• Collect names and phone numbers from other passengers before they leave.
• Do not give a recorded statement to a transit, school district, or bus company adjuster.
• Mark your calendar for six months from the crash date if any government vehicle was involved.

For the full statewide picture, including bus types and the law outside Fort Worth, see our Texas bus accident lawyer page.