At Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool, you will find New York personal injury lawyers and wrongful death attorneys with the knowledge and experience necessary to protect the rights of you and your family following a public transportation accident, including train accidents, subway injuries, ferry accidents and injuries as a result of a New York bus or taxi cab accident.

Whether it’s a child’s school bus accident or a rapid transit accident involving a subway, train, bus or ferry, the public transit accident attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool have the legal and medical knowledge and experience to build a case capable of getting you the maximum compensation you deserve.

New York School Bus Accidents

More than 450,000 public school buses transport 24 million students every school day in this country.

In New York, 2,485 accidents were reported in 2007 as involving a school vehicle, injuring more than 10,000 and claiming 10 lives, according to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles.

More than 500 school vehicle accidents occurred in New York City.

Organizations like the National Coalition for School Bus Safety have long advocated for seat belts on school buses and improvements in designs that remain unchanged since the mid-1970s.

Additionally, regulations in the 1960s and 1970s led to 36 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards being issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation, covering brakes, steering, lights, fuel system integrity, mirrors, heaters/defrosters and emergency exits.

School districts have an obligation to maintain bus safety and to provide safe and adequate transportation of the nation’s children.

When buses are inadequately maintained or a driver is unsafe or unqualified to operate a school bus in a safe manner, accidents can result and children who are injured have a right to be properly compensated for their injuries.

Because of its size, a motorist in an accident with a school bus can be seriously injured or killed and may also be compensated if the school bus is at fault in the accident.

Motorists are required to stop for school buses and accidents involving motorist who injure a child can lead to serious liability or even criminal charges.

MTA at a glance

$10.9 billion budget
8.5 million weekly riders
422 rail, subway and bus routes
8,934 rail and subway cars
6,346 buses
2,057 track miles
3,903 bus route miles
734 rail and subway stations
69,117 employees

New York City Transit
Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Bus

New York Subway Accidents

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is North America’s largest transportation network – carrying 8.5 million people a day by bus, train and subway, along more than 6,000 miles of bus and track routes through more than 700 stations.

Four out of every five rush-hour commuters to New York City’s central business district use the transit service.

A study by Columbia University released in late 2008 found than 668 people died in subway-related deaths between 1990 and 2003. The report found nearly 1 in 4 deaths involved people who were legally drunk, usually those who fell onto the tracks or went down to retrieve a cell phone.

Of the 668 deaths examined by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health:

• 10 Homicides
• 343 were suicides
• 315 accidental or unintentional
• 84 percent were male
• 43.1 percent occurred in Manhattan

Significant subway accidents in transit history include:

Aug. 1995: 18 people were injured when a train struck a stopped train at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station.

February 1995: More than 50 passengers are injured when a motorman slammed into the rear of a train stopped on the Wiliamsburg Bridge. The motorman was killed.

Aug. 1991: In the worst subway accident in more than 60 years, a southbound train derailed just before Union Station, killing 5 people and injuring more than 200. The motorman was drunk and traveling 30 mph over the 10 mph speed limit. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Nov. 1, 1918: The worst accident in subway history kills 97 and injures 200. Known as the Malbone Street Incident, a dispatcher filling in for a striking motorman lost control of the train. The strike was settled at 2 a.m. the next day.

A media report in 2006 found that 23 people died in the subway system that year, including 5 accidents, 5 suicides and deaths from natural causes. Additionally, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported in 2007 that 238 subway workers have been killed in work accidents since 1946.

And if you think you are most in danger on the train, think again: data shows more than 90 percent of all subway injuries occur on the platform – not on the train.

MTA subways, buses and railroads provide 2.6 billion trips each year – the equivalent of one in every three mass transit riders in the United States and two-thirds of the country’s rail riders.

Mass transit accidents can include work-related accidents, slip and fall injuries, rape, homicide or assault, falls onto the track or into the path of a subway, train or bus, head injuries and other serious injury cases originating on an MTA vehicle or city property.

If you or someone you love has been injured on a New York City bus, train, subway or in a taxi cab, the mass transit accident lawyers and the personal injury and wrongful death attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor Fuchs & Kool offer free appointments to discuss your rights.

Call the New York law office of Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool at 212-406-1700.

Resources
National Coalition for School Bus Safety: www.ncsbs.org The Taxi and Limousine Commission: www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/about/about.shtml