What Happened
Both buses combined carried 94 passengers and were about to dismiss and take students home. According to police one bus rear ended the other in the school’s bus lane. 42 students claimed to have injuries, and were taken to the school nurse for examination. Most of the students were diagnosed with bumps and bruises, but some may have been hurt worse. The school did not call for an emergency personnel or EMT’s.
The Virginia Personal Injury Lawyers’ Perspective
I am very shocked the school did not call any emergency personnel to examine the students. Not to discredit the school nurse but injuries sustained in a rear end collision can go unnoticed to an untrained eye. While I suspect any broken bones or concussions would have been spotted other common injuries involved in rear end collisions are not so easily found. One of the most common injuries in a rear end collision is a soft tissue injury, more commonly known as whiplash. Whiplash injuries occur to the soft issue of the spine, caused by extreme jolting of the body. Common symptoms of whiplash include pain between the shoulder blades or neck, headaches, dizziness, and even vision impairment. Immediately following a crash these symptoms are easily hidden by the adrenaline and stress from the accident. Whiplash injuries do not usually require immediate surgical repair, but can eventually destabilize the spine and result in accelerated degenerative disease of the spine. There is great difference between an adult and child injuries. All aspects of medicine from surgery, medications, and how their bodies heal and react to trauma can be very different. So much that pediatric medicine is its own sub-specialty.
As a parent myself I know that anytime your child is injured it is serious. As a Virginia (VA) personal injury attorney I know that being prepared to handle this situation will help ensure you and your family receive proper compensation to help cover any large medical bills, or permanent scarring. Our firm is experienced with the legal process for filing a personal injury claim for a minor and has settled hundreds of car accident injury cases.
For one family we settled multiple cases stemming from their car being rear ended by a tractor-trailer at a stoplight. The husband, wife, and two daughters all suffered injuries. The wreck was so severe the front seats of our clients’ car collapsed backwards. The trunk of the small car was smashed into the passenger compartment of the car driving the little girls into the head rests on the top of the front seats, causing traumatic brain injuries to each girl. Through extensive work with medical professionals, a life care planner, and a structured settlement annuity consultant we determined the amount of the amount of money needed to cover the potential future needs of our brain injured client. We were able to resolve the case at mediation with sufficient funds to establish a trust to provide for her short term medical and educational needs and structured settlement to provide long term financial security for our client.
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