Court Radio<\/em> is broadcast live at 7 a.m. every Sunday morning on Philadelphia\u2019s WRNB 100.3 FM<\/a>, with a simulcast on Magic 95.9 FM<\/a> in Baltimore. You can also listen live on the Internet at WRNB<\/a> 100.3 or on Magic 95.9<\/a> via streaming audio.<\/p>\n A passenger bus sits on a roadside after a severe crash. Image credit: \u00a9 iStockphoto.com\/airportrait<\/p><\/div>\n Just this week a spate of bus accidents has been in the headlines across the U.S.<\/p>\n Seventeen people were hurt when a Metrobus collided with a car<\/a> early this morning in Washington, D.C., according to a report from WTOP FM 103.5<\/em> radio.<\/p>\n In another incident, a bicyclist was struck and killed by a school bus in Arlington, Fla., near Jacksonville, according to WOKV.com News<\/em>.<\/p>\n Even the tour bus for the singer, Bucky Covington, was in a crash<\/a> with a Goodwill truck in Birmingham, Ala.<\/p>\n In February, an 11-year-old girl was killed and her two sisters were critically injured in a school bus accident in New Jersey when the bus was struck by a dump truck just south of Trenton.<\/p>\n Even more serious tour bus accidents have been in the news often in the last few years.<\/p>\n Last March, two people were killed<\/a> when a privately owned tour bus crashed into a guardrail and a concrete embankment on the New Jersey Turnpike and veered into a drainage ditch on the side of the highway, according to a story in The Star-Ledger<\/em> newspaper in Newark, N.J. \u00a0Forty other passengers were injured on the bus, which was heading to Philadelphia from Chinatown in New York. MyPhillyLawyer<\/em> is representing two passengers on this bus. \u00a0The tour bus company involved in this crash has one of the worst driver safety records<\/a> in the bus industry, according to a story in The Star-Ledger<\/em>.<\/p>\n And last August, another tour bus struck the rear of a tractor-trailer rig<\/a> that had run into the rear of another truck on a traffic-snarled, southbound section of the New Jersey Turnpike, The \u00a0Star-Ledger reported. <\/em>The driver of the bus died<\/a> several days after the crash due to critical injuries, while at least 16 other people were injured.<\/p>\n In another incident last June, four bus passengers died<\/a> in Virginia when the discount tour bus they were traveling on swerved off Interstate 95 about 30 miles north of Richmond and overturned, according to an Associated Press<\/em> story on NJ.com<\/em>. \u00a0That bus company, Sky Express Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., was shut down indefinitely<\/a> by the U.S. Department of Transportation in May, according to CBS 3 New York<\/em>.<\/p>\n The worst tour bus crash last year in the U.S. also occurred last March when 14 passengers were killed<\/a> and 19 others were injured when a Manhattan-bound bus overturned on a Bronx highway, according to a story in The New York Times.<\/em> The passengers on the bus were returning to New York\u2019s Chinatown after a night of gambling in a Connecticut casino.<\/p>\n MyPhillyLawyer<\/em> recently settled a bus accident case for $175,000 for a client who was seriously injured when a school bus driver crashed into her car as the bus made a left turn. Upon investigation by MyPhillyLawyer<\/em>, the bus driver had failed some of his training by the bus company but was still out on the roads.<\/p>\n In another case involving a SEPTA bus in Philadelphia, an elderly man was killed when he was thrown on his head as he stood riding inside a bus that stopped quickly as it tried to avoid a crash with another vehicle.<\/p>\n So what do you do if you are in an accident as a passenger on a bus or if your vehicle is struck by a bus? How can people protect their rights?<\/p>\n One thing that depends is what the laws are in the state where the accident occurs, said Chhabra, an attorney with the Annapolis, Md., law firm of Cochran, Cochran & Chhabra. \u00a0Laws for such cases are different in Pennsylvania and Maryland, he said.<\/p>\n “A lot of buses in Maryland are state-owned or owned by local governments,” which subjects such cases to special rules regarding lawsuits, he said. “There’s a notice requirement that has to be given to the state” to notify the government if you are intending to sue after an incident involving a vehicle operated by the state. “The regular statute of limitations [of three years] doesn\u2019t apply.”<\/p>\n The notice requirements are very stringent, he said, and can be as short as six months. A plaintiff injured in a crash with a state-operated vehicle still has a three year statute of limitations in which to file a lawsuit, but the notice requirement means you also have to inform the state that a lawsuit will be filed or you lose your ability to sue, Chhabra explained.<\/p>\n Chhabra earned his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore and earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Boston University.<\/p>\n Be sure to tune in for Court Radio at 7 a.m. Sunday to hear more about bus accidents and your rights with co-hosts Dean Weitzman and David Rapoport and their guest, Mandeep Singh Chhabra. And remember to call in with your own questions and comments.<\/p>\n About Court Radio<\/em><\/p>\n Listeners can call in with their legal questions to 800-539-1479 or they can email their questions to <\/em>AskDean@CourtRadio.com<\/a>. Participants are asked to only ask or submit ONE question each time so that all callers have a chance to discuss the legal topics that are on their minds.<\/em><\/p>\n Court Radio is the place to ask your legal questions and get real answers from lawyers with a deep background in the law, from personal injury to contracts and estates, insurance and much more.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.myphillylawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/5-11-12-bus-accident-by-airportrait-iStock_000019476413XSmall-200x300.jpg\" "\\"5")