By Jason Tenenbaum
Every school morning in New York, more than two million children stand at bus stops, cross in front of stopped buses, and walk through school zones where drivers are supposed to slow down. Most days nothing happens. On the days something does, parents discover that the law protecting children on the way to school is strong, and that the law governing what happens afterward has deadlines that do not care how old the child is.
I have represented injured children and their families in New York for more than twenty years. This is what I wish every parent knew before they needed to.
The rules drivers have to follow
New York’s school bus law is among the strictest in the country. Vehicle and Traffic Law section 1174 requires every driver, in both directions, to stop for a school bus displaying flashing red lights, and unlike many states New York does not exempt drivers on the other side of a divided highway. The stop applies on the opposite side of a multi-lane road, in a parking lot, and on school grounds. Passing a stopped school bus is not just a ticket; in an injury case it is evidence of negligence that the driver has to explain away.
School zones carry reduced speed limits when children are present or when the beacons are flashing, and New York City’s speed cameras now operate around the clock. A driver’s citation for a school-zone violation, or a camera record of their speed, is admissible and is often the case.
The buses themselves are governed by their own rules: the required flashing-light sequence, the stop arm, the driver’s obligation to make sure a child who has to cross has crossed before the bus moves. Bus companies and school districts keep camera footage from every bus. That footage is overwritten, sometimes within days, unless someone demands in writing that it be kept.
The deadline that ignores childhood
Here is the part that catches families. New York gives a child extra time to sue. Under CPLR 208, the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the child turns 18. Parents assume that means there is no rush. For a claim against a private driver, that is roughly true.
For a claim against a school district, a town, a county, a city, or a public bus operator, it is not. General Municipal Law section 50-e, and for school districts Education Law section 3813, require a written notice of claim within 90 days of the accident. The courts have held repeatedly that the infancy toll does not apply to the 90-day notice. A court can grant permission to file late, and a child’s age is one factor it considers, but the application has to be made within a year and 90 days of the accident and the decision is discretionary. A family that waits until the child is better, which is the natural thing to do, can find that the claim against the district that ran the bus is gone.
If a school bus, a school district vehicle, or a municipal road condition was involved in any way, the 90 days is the deadline that matters.
The settlement has to be approved by a judge
The second thing that surprises families: a child’s injury claim cannot be settled by a parent’s signature. Under CPLR 1207 and 1208, any settlement of a minor’s claim, whether it is $5,000 for a broken wrist or $2 million for a brain injury, requires a court order. The judge reviews the medical records, the terms, and the attorney’s fee, and may require the child to appear. A release a parent signs without that order is not binding; the child can repudiate it at 18 and bring the claim as if nothing had been settled, which is why no reputable insurer will pay without the order.
The money does not go to the parents. It is typically deposited in a bank account under joint control of the court and a parent, or placed in a structured settlement, and released to the child at 18. Withdrawals before then require a court application showing the expense is for the child’s benefit. Where a parent’s interests conflict with the child’s, for example where a parent was driving, the court appoints a guardian ad litem to represent the child.
The parents’ own claim, for the medical expenses they paid and the care they provided, is separate and can be settled by the parents directly.
No-fault, and the child
A child struck by a car as a pedestrian is covered by that car’s no-fault policy for up to $50,000 in medical expenses, regardless of fault, and the written application has to reach the insurer within 30 days. A child hurt on a school bus is generally covered by the bus’s policy. A child hurt by a bus that was a school district’s own vehicle is dealing with a self-insured district, and the notice of claim above is the route. In every case the medical bills should be submitted to the right carrier promptly, because a child with continuing treatment can exhaust health-insurance limits quickly.
The evidence to preserve in the first week
The bus number and company, the driver’s name, and the school district. The police report number. Photographs of the stop, the road, the signage and the sight lines at the same time of day. The names of other children and parents who saw it; they will be gone by the following week. The clothes and backpack, unwashed. And a written demand to the bus company, the district, and any business with a camera facing the stop, to preserve their footage.
I set out how these cases work, from the 90-day notice through the court approval of the settlement, on our page for a school bus accident lawyer on Long Island. The law gives an injured child real protection. It gives the family a very short time to invoke it.
Jason Tenenbaum is the principal of the Law Office of Jason Tenenbaum, P.C. in Huntington Station, New York. He has practiced personal injury law since 2002, including infant compromise proceedings in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and has written about New York injury law since 2008.
