Lawrence County, IN — A school bus that was headed from Bloomington to Marengo Cave suffered a blown tire, which led to an accident that left 10 students injured. This happened on Tuesday morning, October 20, 2015 along Route 37, just south of Bedford and north of Mitchell.
The bus was headed south along Route 37 when one of the tires suddenly blew out near Wesley Chapel Road.
The bus then flipped onto its side and skidded into the northbound lanes, where it came to a rest on the driver’s side. Of the students onboard the bus, only 10 were injured and they were all rushed to various hospitals nearby according to the severity of their injuries.
The average age of the students on the bus was 14-15 years old, the news said.
Update: It doesn’t appear that any of the students’ injuries are life-threatening or serious.
Map of the Accident
Commentary:
I don’t know much about what happened here, but I’ve handled accidents with school-owned vehicles before. Contrary to what you might think, they don’t work the same way a regular car accident claim works at all. Essentially, the county or city where the school resides is responsible for the accident if it was caused by their driver. In this accident, it looks like perhaps the bus should have been better maintained or had the tires checked more frequently. In any case, if the school district is found to be responsible in any way for an accident, they are considered civilly liable for the damages, injuries, medical bills, etc involved.
However, they are protected by something most people refer to as “sovereign immunity,” which is a special legal protection offered to the government and government agencies. The general idea is that even though most states do allow lawsuits against the state or government agencies, but there are restrictions. This can generally be found in a city charter or county charter, and there are often limitations on the amounts of money that can be recovered, as well as the time given to file a claim.
I don’t know what really happened here, obviously, but it afforded me the opportunity to explain an oft-misunderstood area of the law, which is always helpful. I would be curious, however, to know when the last maintenance check was performed on this bus, because it may be that the tires were overdue for a change.
— Grossman Law Offices
