ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT MAY EXAMINE BUS SERVICE ISSUE
The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to hold that a St. Clair County Municipal Bus Service has no duty to ensure the safety of young children after they get off their bus. Whitney Evans v. Bi-State Development Agency, No. 107329. The duty to ensure the safety of students after they get off the bus has traditionally been confined to school bus operators. Here, Bi-State was operating a bus service for the St. Clair County Transportation Authority. Bi-State provided a “tripper service” in which they would accommodate the extra demand of students traveling to and from school. The underlying lawsuit arises from a situation where a student was struck by a car after attempting to cross the street after the Bi-State bus she was riding departed from the bus stop.
In Illinois, bus operators and bus companies which transport our young children to and from school are required to use the highest degree of care in the practical operation of their buses. In this case, although they may not be a bus company by “name,” Bi-State is in the business of transporting children during the tripper service. As the plaintiff alleged in the case, Bi-State is operating as a “de facto” school bus company.
The bus company is attempting to avoid liability and financial responsibility by contending they were not operating a school bus “service” at the time of the incident.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. As previously mentioned on www.chicagoaccidentinjurylawyer.com, an average of 20 children die in school transportation-related crashes each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Parents entrust that the bus companies, which are profiting from this business venture, will safely get their children from point “a” from “b.” Bi-State’s position seems to differ from that of the parents in Illinois law. Are they a school bus service? The Illinois Supreme Court may opt to decide this issue. Coincidentally, the appellate court denied Bi-State’s leave to appeal last month. All I know is if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is usually a duck.
