In rural areas local authorities are obliged to provide a bus service to get pupils to and from school. Often, in remote and rural areas, there are no regular bus stops, so an authority has to choose safe drop off points for the children.
In one of our recent cases, the local authority selected a drop off point on the opposite side of the road leading to the children’s homes, and as a result, the children were hit by a moving car when they attempted to cross. This case highlights some important lessons for local authorities when choosing safe stops for rural school buses, and for drivers navigating the roads.
Responsibilities of a local authority
The children were aged eight and five and after leaving the school bus they had to walk across the main road either in front of, or behind the bus to get to their homes. They got off, walked behind it and were struck by an oncoming car. Fortunately they were not seriously injured.
The local authority could have chosen a drop off point on the same side of the road as the path leading to their homes, which would have prevented the children having to cross the road, avoiding injury.
If an authority fails to select a reasonably safe drop off point, then in accidents involving younger children they leave themselves open to a claim for negligence.
Duties of bus driver
A bus driver has a duty to take reasonable care for the safety of younger children when transporting them from their homes to school. Whether the bus driver owes a duty to the particular child will depend on the circumstances of each case, but as a general rule any child under the age of ten can reasonably expect the bus driver to warn and advise them about known hazards.
In our recent case, the bus driver failed to:
- warn the children to wait before crossing the main road until the bus had moved off; or
- failed to escort them safely across the road.
The failure of the bus driver to do either was considered negligent and the children were from then on dropped off on their side of the road so they didn’t have to cross by themselves.
Responsibilities of motorists approaching or overtaking school bus
The car driver was also considered negligent as she had seen the school bus stop and the children getting off the bus, but in overtaking she failed to slow down or stop to check they wouldn’t step out from behind the bus. According, she was partly to blame for injuring the children, and although she was not charged with a motoring offence, her insurers were willing to admit liability on her behalf.
Motorists should slow down and take extra care when approaching or overtaking a stationary bus, and in some circumstances, stop, to prevent the risk of injury to children, otherwise they leave themselves open to a claim for injury.
