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There are many aspects that you would have to consider when it comes to public transit accidents. There are two main differentiations which are going to have a critical impact on the way things are going to unravel after the accident – whether you are involved in it as a user of the public transit services or as a pedestrian. Both situations would allow you to take part in a compensatory procedure and request monetary compensation of the damages that you’ve had to incur but from a legal prospective the situations are governed in a different manner.
Pedestrian – Public Transit Accident
The truth is that there aren’t quite a lot of differences when it comes to the essence of the case. You would still have to file a claim towards the insurer and he’s going to conduct an investigation to determine the amount of the due compensation as well as the distribution of fault. Now, it’s important to note that the differences are going to stem when you want to go ahead and claim damages through the court. This is where things get truly different. If you’ve been involved in a public transit accident as a pedestrian, you would have to file a claim against the entity which owns the services. In the majority of cases this is going to be the municipality.
There are special terms that you would have to take into account when it comes to it and this is very important if you want to ensure that everything is handled perfectly. For instance, once you’ve filed the letter of intent to sue, you will have to wait for 60 days as opposed to the regular 30 prior to being able to file the claim in court.
Accidents as a User of the Public Transit Services
This is fairly simple in terms of getting the compensation. You are going to have to file against the owning authority and the case is going to proceed as normal. In most of similar cases, experienced lawyers take on the responsibility of representing the rights of the victims so that they are compensated adequately.
In any case, the truth is that these are very traumatic accidents. Some of the most common injuries includes serious whiplash. This is the process of your head going forward tremendously fast and then suddenly backwards because of sudden breaks, for instance or other improper conduct on behalf of the driver. Of course, there are certain situations in which liability is exempted. For instance, when the driver has acted this way in order to avoid a bigger accident, it’s impossible to claim damages because he is actually preventing more serious and potentially catastrophic results. With this in mind, public transit accidents in Ontario are not common, but they pose a significant interest within the society.