For motorists, any accident involving a large truck or bus has the potential for serious injury or even death. When you consider a typical car weighs about 3,000 lbs. while a large commercial truck can easily weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, it’s not hard to see why. In addition to large trucks sideswiping and rear-ending passenger cars, city buses and tour buses can cause serious motor vehicle accidents around Milwaukee as well. A common scenario is a bus making a turn and clipping the front end of a car. Even worse are the incidents where a bus hits a cyclist or pedestrian, which almost always results in serious injury.
At Warshafsky Law Firm, we’ve been representing people who have been injured in bus and truck accidents for over 60 years. We take on negligent drivers, bus companies, trucking businesses, and whoever else played a role in causing your injuries. Contact us to find out what we can do for you.
Unlike other personal injury law firms, Warshafsky isn’t quick to take the first settlement offer an insurance company puts on the table. We prepare every case from day one as though it will go before a judge and jury. Whether it does or not, we do everything possible to get our clients the maximum compensation.
If you have been injured in an accident involving a truck or bus, you have every right to sue to recover for your medical expenses, lost time from work, and pain and suffering, as well as the damage to your vehicle. You’ll need an aggressive truck accident attorney who has won significant compensation for their clients. Insurance company lawyers will try to buy you off in settlement for the least amount they can get away with. That’s where Warshafsky Law comes in. You have one shot at getting fairly compensated for your injuries. Don’t take chances with anyone but the trustworthy Milwaukee car accident law firm from Warshafsky Law.
While all traffic accidents have the potential to cause serious bodily harm, an accident between a passenger vehicle and bus can be especially damaging. A bus’s sheer size means it generates tremendous force at highway speeds. That force can easily crumple a much smaller car, truck, motorcycle, or SUV, and put drivers and passengers at risk of life-changing injury or death.
Also, buses often don’t come equipped with seatbelts for passengers. A sudden jolt from a collision, spinout, or other accident can throw you from your seat and cause a range of serious injuries. Finally, as a bus passenger, you likely have no idea who your driver is, and whether they have a history of accidents or traffic violations. You also can’t know if the bus is in good repair, or if a key system like the brakes is about to fail.
Every school day, parents in the Milwaukee area entrust their children to their school bus driver to bring them to and from school safely. Unfortunately, school buses in Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin can get into serious traffic accidents just like any other vehicle. And passengers on the bus can get hurt, as can people inside the much smaller vehicles that buses hit.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT), there were an annual average of 504 school bus accidents statewide for the years 2020 to ’23. Fortunately, these collisions caused no fatalities for passengers, but did cause an average of 57 occupant injuries for those years. And in 2024, 139 school bus accident injuries among passengers were reported.
Every child deserves a safe bus ride to and from school. Our Milwaukee personal injury attorneys are here to help your family pursue the highest level of compensation available if you’ve been affected by a school bus accident.
If you’ve been seriously hurt in a bus or truck accident, you need to know your rights. One of Warshafsky’s personal injury lawyers will be happy to discuss your case with you. Contact our office in Milwaukee today to make an appointment.
Just like with any motor vehicle accident that causes physical harm, financial losses, and other damages, you are entitled to pursue a claim after getting caught in a bus accident. Common damages sustained in a collision with a bus include medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost past and future wages.
Everything you discuss with a Wisconsin personal injury attorney is protected by attorney-client privilege, even if you don’t end up hiring them. That means the lawyer cannot disclose what you tell them to anyone, except in limited circumstances, such as when you give permission. An experienced attorney knows not to judge their client, and to help them feel comfortable describing their side of the story.
A claim based on a collision between a bus and passenger vehicle, bicyclist, or pedestrian often takes longer to resolve than a typical motor vehicle accident case. In a crash between two cars, the drivers are typically the only parties involved. But in a bus accident, the bus driver’s employer is often a third party in the lawsuit. Under the principle of vicarious liability, an employer can be held liable for the negligent actions of an employee in the course of their work duties. This could involve a private business like Greyhound, or a government entity like a school district or county.
These entities may have the insurance or other resources to better compensate you than the driver, but they also have large legal budgets. Thus, your case could take several months to settle. If a reasonable settlement isn’t possible, the process of preparing for trial, filing motions, and the trial itself could take even longer, perhaps a year or more.
Depending on the facts of the case, a bus driver who causes a crash could face criminal charges on top of a personal injury lawsuit. They could lose their commercial license, pay a large fine, and even go to prison.
But even if that doesn’t happen, you could still be entitled to compensation from the driver and their employer. Wisconsin civil law carries a lower standard of proof than its criminal code. Evidence that isn’t enough for prosecutors to pursue charges against the driver could be sufficient to prove a personal injury claim.
