If you’ve been injured on the roads by a bus or while on a bus, you might be interested in how a bus accident compensation calculator could help you. In this guide, we’ll discuss the benefits of using a compensation calculator to help you get a broad idea of what you could receive from a successful claim.
We’ll also discuss when you could make a bus accident compensation claim, and talk about the criteria that every road traffic accident claim needs to meet in order to be valid. Then, we’ll go through some examples of how a bus accident could happen.
Not everyone will be claiming for their own injuries; sometimes, we have to claim on behalf of someone else. This guide discusses whether or not you could claim for an injury that your child sustained on a school bus, and how you could go about that.
Finally, our guide will touch on the many benefits of working with a legal professional on your claim. Our panel of expert solicitors offer high-quality services on a No Win No Fee basis, which we’ll explore more later.
Contact Us
Our team of helpful advisors are on hand to answer any questions you might have about using a personal injury claim calculator, and they might be able to connect you with one of our specialist personal injury solicitors for your case. To get started:
- Call us on 0800 408 7826
- Use the live chat feature.
- Contact us online.
Browse Our Guide
- Bus Accident Compensation Calculator
- Can I Claim Bus Accident Compensation?
- Can I Claim On My Child’s Behalf For An Injury On A School Bus?
- How Could A Bus Accident Happen?
- Claim Bus Accident Injury Compensation On A No Win No Fee Basis
- More Resources About Making A Personal Injury Claim
Bus Accident Compensation Calculator
So, how can a personal injury claim calculator help you? A lot of people turn to these kinds of tools when making a bus accident claim because they want to know how much compensation they could receive.
Using a personal injury claims calculator can be helpful in this regard, because it can give you a broad idea of how much compensation you could receive. Compensation calculators often use compensation guidelines from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) in conjunction with financial losses like lost earnings to reach a broad estimate of what your bus accident claim payout could look like.
The JCG provides guideline compensation brackets for a number of different injuries, including both physical and psychological injuries like anxiety and PTSD. These form the head of your claim known as general damages, which is compensation for the pain and suffering you’ve suffered as a result of your injuries. You will need to provide medical evidence of your injuries in order to claim compensation for them, such as your medical records.
We’ve listed some JCG entries below, but keep in mind that the first entry hasn’t been taken from the JCG.
| Injury | Severity | Compensation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple severe injuries with special damages | Severe | £1,000,000+ | A compensation settlement to reflect suffering multiple severe injuries and financial losses such as lost wages. |
| Brain damage | Very severe | £344,150 to £493,000 | Requires round-the-clock care and results in little response to surroundings. |
| Back | Severe (i) | £111,150 to £196,450 | Involving severe nerve root damage and spinal cord damage. |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder | Severe | £73,050 to £122,850 | Prevents you from working, socialising, or living as you did before the trauma. |
| Arm | Less Severe | £23,810 to £47,810 | A substantial recovery will have taken place despite suffering a significant arm injury. |
| Neck | Moderate (i) | £30,500 to £46,970 | Dislocations or fractures resulting in immediate severe symptoms. |
| Leg | Less serious (i) | £21,920 to £33,880 | A reasonable recovery will have been after suffering a fracture. |
| Whiplash | +1 whiplash injuries +1 psychological injuries | £4,345 | Lasting between 18-24 months. |
| Whiplash | +1 whiplash injuries | £4,215 | Lasting between 18-24 months. |
Can I Claim For Lost Earnings After A Bus Accident?
Yes, you can claim for lost earnings and other financial losses caused by your injuries under special damages. This heading can also help you recoup the cost of things like prescriptions, childcare, mobility aids, and private medical treatment.
You will need to provide financial evidence of these losses in order to claim for them, such as your payslips and bank statements.
To learn more about how a bus accident compensation calculator could help you, take a look at our own compensation calculator or get in touch with our helpful team today.
What Are The Whiplash Reforms?
The Whiplash Reform Programme was introduced in 2021, and changed the way that some whiplash claims are made. Now, you will make your claim differently if you are aged 18 or over and you are:
- The driver or passenger of a vehicle.
- Claiming for injuries valued at £5,000 or below.
- Claiming in England or Wales.
Otherwise, your claim will be made through the traditional route. No matter how you claim, all whiplash injuries are valued in line with the tariffs set out in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021. These are fixed amounts, and we have featured some of them in our table above.
To find out how you should make your claim, contact our team of advisors today.
Can I Claim Bus Accident Compensation?
Now you know how a bus accident compensation calculator could help you, let’s talk about when you could claim compensation. Unfortunately, being in a bus accident alone isn’t enough to warrant compensation; you need to be able to prove that negligence has occurred.
Negligence can mean different things in different situations. However, in personal injury law, it can be defined as:
- Someone else owing you a duty of care.
- This duty being breached.
- You suffering an injury as a result.
But what is a duty of care? Generally, a duty of care is a legal responsibility for someone else’s health and safety.
All road users are owed and owe a duty of care to each other, which means that they need to do all they can to prevent causing harm to one another. To uphold this duty, they need to follow the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Act 1988. So, you are owed a duty of care by the bus driver, as well as others using the roads.
For example, if you were on a bus and the driver sped through a red light, colliding with a car on the other side of the junction, this could be seen as a breach of their duty of care. If the collision caused you to suffer an injury, like a broken leg, then you may be able to make a claim.
Can I Claim If A Bus Driver Isn’t At Fault For My Injury?
Yes, in some cases, you may still be able to claim if the bus driver isn’t at fault, as long as another road user was at fault for the accident.
For example, if a lorry driver did not leave enough stopping distance and rear-ended your bus, causing you to suffer an injury, then you could potentially make a claim against the driver.
However, if you were at fault for your injury, then you would not be able to claim. For example, if you were descending the stairs on a double-decker bus and fell because the bus was still in motion.
We understand that this can be overwhelming, and our advisors are here to help. Get in touch today to find out if you could have a valid claim.
Can I Claim On My Child’s Behalf For An Injury On A School Bus?
Yes, you can potentially claim on behalf of your child if they were injured on a school bus so long as you can prove that negligence occurred. To do this, you need to apply to act as their litigation friend.
A litigation friend acts on behalf of the claimant. This means that you need to act in their best interests and do all you can to make sure their thoughts and feelings on the case are known. You also need to communicate with their solicitor and keep them informed of what is happening on the case.
If your child’s claim succeeds, then the Court Funds Office (CFO) will be responsible for their compensation. It will be held in a trust there until they turn eighteen.
If you’d like to know whether you could claim on behalf of your child, contact our team of advisors today. They can tell you whether or not there is a valid claim, and can give you more information on using a bus accident compensation calculator.
How Could A Bus Accident Happen?
Negligence can contribute to a bus accident in a number of ways, including:
- Drunk driving: If your bus driver was operating a bus while drunk, this could cause them to veer off the road and overturn the bus. This can cause multiple severe injuries and even fatalities.
- Inadequate stopping distance: Leaving an inadequate stopping distance, especially in adverse weather such as rain, can cause the bus to collide with the vehicle in front of it. This can cause severe crush injuries, as well as whiplash.
- Speeding: If your bus driver was driving over the speed limit, this could cause collisions with other vehicles and cyclists and can also put double-decker buses at risk of overturning.
These are only a few examples of how a bus accident could happen. Contact our advisors today for more information, or keep reading to learn how a No Win No Fee solicitor could help you.
Claim Bus Accident Injury Compensation On A No Win No Fee Basis
After using a bus accident compensation calculator, you might be wondering how a solicitor could help you achieve this settlement. While compensation calculators don’t provide guaranteed amounts, claiming with a specialist solicitor can help you get the compensation that you deserve.
An expert legal professional can help you with every aspect of the bus accident claims process, including:
- Negotiating a settlement.
- Collecting evidence and supporting your case.
- Arranging an independent medical assessment and contacting witnesses.
- Communicating with the defendant and with the court.
- Preparing your claim for court if negotiations fail.
- Explaining legal jargon and other technical terms.
Plus, our panel of expert solicitors can do all of this under the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This means that:
- You don’t pay anything for their work upfront.
- You don’t pay for their work as the claim is ongoing.
- You don’t pay for their work at all if your claim doesn’t succeed.
If your claim does succeed, then you will pay a success fee to your solicitor. This is taken as a small percentage of your compensation, which is capped by law.
Contact Us
Get in touch with our team of advisors today to find out how one of the solicitors on our panel could help you claim bus injury compensation. They can answer any questions you may have and potentially connect you with a solicitor on our panel.
To get started:
- Call us on 0800 408 7826
- Use the live chat feature.
- Contact us online.
More Resources About Making A Personal Injury Claim
For more helpful personal injury guides:
- Find out how to claim for a distal radius fracture with our helpful guide.
- Learn how to make a burn injury compensation claim with our guide.
- Get help making a claim for a broken foot with our informative guide.
Or, to get more resources:
- See road accident and safety statistics from the Government.
- Learn about first aid from the NHS.
- Get help from Brake, the road safety charity.
Thank you for reading our guide on using a bus accident compensation calculator. Contact our advisors today with any questions you may have about claiming compensation for your injuries following a bus accident.