Public transit in Colorado is a great source of transportation: it's convenient, economical, and most usually safe. Sometimes, though, accidents do happen, and when they do, they can be serious. Unlike auto accidents where you deal with private individuals, private entities, and/or insurance companies––public transit accidents involve a government entity. The rules are different. The claims process is different. And compensation may also be different. Much of it will depend on the jurisdiction where the accident occurred.
At Hagen Nares PLLC, we help our clients understand what is at stake, what their rights are, and what their legal options are. Our public transit accident lawyers will guide you through the process so that there are no delays in recovering optimal compensation that the law will allow. Contact our office today at 720-772-8513 to schedule a Free Consultation and learn more.
Understanding Public Transit Accidents in Colorado
Public transit can be an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to get around. However, there are risks inherent in every form of travel. Public transit accidents are any accident that involves some sort of public transit, including trains, subways, buses, and even airplanes. Because most forms of public transit naturally include large amounts of people, an accident can have potentially devastating outcomes.
As it is, public transit usually does not provide common safety features for passengers, like seatbelts, airbags, or other safety features that help prevent or reduce injuries when in a passenger vehicle. Further, mass transit vehicles, like trains, tend to perform at high speeds which can exacerbate injury when coupled with little or no safety features like seatbelts when there's an accident.
Challenges of Public Transit Accidents in Colorado
Public transit accidents present many unique legal challenges as opposed to an accident involving only passenger vehicles. For one, there are many types of public transit. Determining how to pursue a claim will be a vastly different process depending on what exact type of transit your accident involved.
Because there are many different types of transit, there are many ways that an incident can happen, and many different types of injuries that a victim might sustain. For example, the injury and resultant personal injury case will likely look a lot different for someone who has their hand slammed in a subway door than for someone who is injured when an airplane skids off of a runway.
Another challenge unique to public transit accidents is determining who is liable for your injuries. In order to be able to recover anything in a personal injury claim there must be a party to hold liable for those injuries, and this can be tricky to determine in public transit accidents. Many times, the party who is responsible for operating public transit will be the government, and trying to sue the government can present its own set of challenges.
Types of Public Transit Accidents
Public transit accidents can occur in multiple ways involving any of the following:
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Train accidents, which can result from train collisions with other trains, vehicles, and people, or can result from incidents inside the train, like assault, rape, or robbery
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Bus accidents, which can result from bus collisions with other buses, vehicles, bicyclists, pedestrians, animals, or a stationary object
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Subway or metro accidents, which can result from subway derailment, sudden stops, insufficient maintenance, or equipment installation or incidents on the platform or within the subway or subway station, like assault, rape, or robbery
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Taxi accidents, which can result from accidents with other vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and stationary objects
Common Types of Public Transit-Related Injuries
The type of injury sustained in a public transit related accident can vary dramatically.
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Spinal cord injuries
- Back injuries
- Bone fractures
- Organ damage
- Whiplash
- Internal bleeding
- Lacerations
The extent of any one of these injuries will vary depending on multiple factors, like speed, type of vehicle, and the victim's age and health.
Liability for a Public Transit Accidents
An important starting point for every personal injury lawsuit is determining who is responsible for your injuries, which determines who may be liable to pay cash damages. It could be, for example, the driver of the car who collides with the bus that you are on or it could be the driver of the bus.
Things can quickly become much more complicated in public transit accidents. For example, it could be that the entity responsible for your injuries is the manufacturer of a bus that broke down and caused an accident, in which case, filing a products liability claim against the manufacturer could be the solution.
In addition, it could be that the government entity that runs the transit system is actually at fault. In sum, any number of people or entities can be responsible for a mass transit accident in Colorado, from the driver, the owner, the operator, or a government entity. Finding the cause of the accident will help you pinpoint who is liable––and it can be more than one party.
Common causes of mass transit accidents include:
- Driver negligence, like distractions, falling asleep or fatigue, inexperience, failure to follow the rules of the road (e.g., speeding, running red lights), drugs or alcohol impairment
- Failure to maintain vehicle maintenance
- Faulty or defective vehicle or parts
- Defectively designed or poorly maintained rails or roads
- Incorrect dispatching
- Inadequate security, lighting, or safety measures
- Lack of training and supervision
When a government is liable, they are typically protected by a concept known as sovereign immunity, which protects them from lawsuits.
How Can a Public Transit Accident Lawyer in Colorado Help?
One of the most beneficial steps an accident victim can take after a public transit accident is to hire a personal injury lawyer. Given the complexity of public transit accidents and the extra steps that they can entail, including things like timely filing a notice of claim against government entities, a lawyer can ensure that your case is handled effectively and thoroughly.
Time is of the essence, though. Unlike personal injury claims against private entities where you may have a few years to file a claim or lawsuit (depending on the jurisdiction), you do not have that much time when suing a government entity. Usually, in Colorado, you have to file a notice of claim to the entity within 182 days––though the latter time frame may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Contact a Public Transit Accident Lawyer in Colorado Today
Our public transit lawyers at Hagen Nares PLLC have helped others, and they can help you, too. Call us today at 720-772-8513, or simply fill out our online contact form, and we will schedule a Free Case Review and get you started on recovery.