When you rely on any form of public transport, whether it’s for commuting to work or for any other reason, it may not feel like it but you are putting your safety in the hands of a transportation provider and its employees. The last thing you expect when boarding public transport is that you will become injured during your journey.
Public transport providers are providing a service to the general public while operating and as such they owe people a duty of care. This involves not putting anybody in danger regardless of whether they are a passenger, pedestrian, or other road user, by making sure that their vehicles are safe, regularly serviced, and insured for the number of passengers that they can hold.
Therefore, if you are injured when using public transport, or by public transport while you are a pedestrian, then you may be able to make a public liability claim for compensation for your injuries. At Brown Turner Ross, our personal injury solicitors can help you seek compensation if you are eligible to make a public transport or other personal injury claim.
Types of public transport injury claims
A claim for an injury on public transport is classified as a public liability claim, the same as most supermarket accidents or claims against hairdressers. This is because business providers (and in this case public transport providers) will have public liability insurance that will cover them in the event a member of the public, like yourself, is injured as a result of their negligence or malpractices.
If you are an employee for a public transport provider and you become injured through an accident at work that was not your fault, then you may still be able to make a claim except yours will progress through employers’ liability rather than public liability. This is because employees are not covered by public liability insurance.
Bus accident claims
While taking a bus journey seems like such an innocuous occurrence, there were in fact 45,874 bus accidents on TFL busses between 2014 and 2021. Not all of these were passengers, as drivers were included in those statistics too.
A large number of these accidents were slips, trips and falls, as well as collision related injuries from a bus crash or sharp acceleration/deceleration, or personal injury events. If you find yourself becoming one of these statistics, provided that you were not wholly responsible for your injury and instead responsibility was found to lie with the transport provider or the driver, then you would likely be eligible to make a bus accident claim by suing a bus company.
Who your bus claim will be against will depend on what bus you were on at the time of your incident. For example, if you were involved in a bus crash claim in Merseyside (where our Southport office is based) then you may find yourself making a Stagecoach or Arriva bus accident claim. Another big name in bus transport is FirstGroup, who were previously the largest bus operator in Great Britain, meaning there are a high number of First bus accident claims.
Train injury compensation
Accidents on trains are another example of where you may be able to make a public transport liability claim.
When compared to busses, you may think that trains are safer because they operate on dedicated railways rather than busy roads with other vehicles. This is not necessarily the case and there are many ways that you may be involved in an accident involving a train.
In 2020-2021, there were 3693 reported injuries (including shock and trauma) across all mainline, London Underground, and tram networks in Great Britain. On top of this, there were 308 accidents resulting in fatalities.
The majority of these accidents occur due to spillages or debris within the train carriage itself, but this data also includes any accidents that occur within railway authority premises such as train stations.
Personal injury claims against TFL and other taxis
Regardless of whether you were a passenger in a private hire vehicle or a black cab ran by TFL or any other provider, if you were injured and it was not your fault then you may be able to make a claim against the party found to be responsible.
Taxi drivers are required to have a certain type of insurance in order to operate, however the type of insurance a driver may have can differ from taxi to taxi.
Taxi businesses may have taxi fleet insurance, which is a policy that covers multiple (three or more) vehicles. Individual drivers may have their own insurance which will differ depending on whether they are private hire drivers or public hire drivers. If it is found that your driver (or the party responsible) did not have any insurance, then this will not prevent your claim from being able to go ahead.
As with all other personal injuries, you will have three years from the date you were injured to make your personal injury claim. Although this will be different if you were under 18 when you were injured, as then you will have three years from the date you turn 18 to make your claim.
Public transport injury claims at Brown Turner Ross
Whether you are seeking TFL injury compensation, or compensation from any other party responsible for your injury from public transport, then get in touch with our experienced solicitors at Brown Turner Ross.
We will be able to walk you through your next steps and offer you advise that may be crucial in securing your future following a traumatic injury on public transport.
Get in touch today for an initial consultation to see if you are eligible to make a claim.