Keeping to a tight time schedule on our busy and congested roads can’t always be an easy thing to do. Bus drivers normally like to be as efficient as possible, which means they can set off before you are seated.
On occasions, people are injured by falling over or hitting something when the driver sets off before a passenger is seated. So where do you stand on this?
Unfortunately there isn’t actually a clear duty that states that a driver must wait for you to be seated. In most buses you are free to stand as opposed to be seated, and handholds and rails are provided for people to hold on to during journeys.
The driver doesn’t actually have to wait for you to be seated before pulling off.
There are circumstances that can affect this though – there are three main factors that can mean that you may have a better chance at succeeding with a claim for personal injury compensation:
- How you mobilise
- Your age
- Whether the driver suddenly stopped after pulling of
Your mobility is a big one. If you get on to the bus with a walking aid or chair, or perhaps very steadily because of obvious mobility problems, then we can argue that the driver ought to have let you sit down first given you clearly have mobility problems. If you walk on to the bus with a walking stick or perhaps with your arms linked with an escort, there is obviously a higher chance you may not be able to steady yourself if the bus moved off.
If you are elderly, then we can automatically take this in to account as well. Of course, some people look younger and walk better than others, but if you are old and obviously walking rather slowly, then we can use this as an argument as well.
Other factors such as the driver setting off and then suddenly stopping may help – although we need to identify why a sudden stop occurred. If the driver wasn’t paying attention and almost pulled out of the lay-by in to another vehicle then they can be at fault.
What’s important in a case like this is instructing a lawyer right away and reporting the accident so we can try and secure CCTV footage. CCTV footage may be the only thing that proves your case, and the tapes normally get erased within a week or two of them being recorded; so time really is of the essence.