A bus company owes you more than an ordinary driver does, and the deadline for your claim depends on who operated the bus. Those two facts shape these cases, and the second one can decide whether you still have a case at all.
Culver Legal, LLP acts for injured bus passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers across Long Beach on contingency, with case costs advanced. Nothing to pay up front, no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
The Standard a Bus Company Is Held To
A bus company is not held to ordinary care. It is held to something higher, and the standard is written into the Civil Code.
Civil Code 2100 provides that a carrier of persons for reward must use the utmost care and diligence for their safe carriage, must provide everything necessary for that purpose, and must exercise to that end a reasonable degree of skill.
Three obligations, not one, and the middle one is the one most pages leave out. “Must provide everything necessary for that purpose” reaches maintenance, equipment and the condition of the vehicle, not only how carefully it was driven on the day.
Utmost care is a meaningfully higher bar than the ordinary duty owed by a private driver. Conduct that would not amount to negligence in an ordinary car case can fall short of it, which is why the standard is worth knowing before anyone accepts that nothing went wrong.
This applies to carriers of persons for reward, which covers transit operators, charter and tour coaches, and shuttle services.
Hurt on or by a bus in Long Beach?
A carrier owes the utmost care and diligence, not ordinary care. And the deadline turns on who operated the vehicle.
Who Operated the Bus Decides Your Deadline
This is the first question in the case, and it is not a formality.
If the operator is a public entity, a written claim must normally be presented within six months under Government Code 911.2 rather than the ordinary two years, and Government Code 945.4 bars a lawsuit until that claim has been presented and the entity has either acted on it or is treated as having rejected it, which happens automatically once 45 days pass without a decision. A school district bus is the clearest example.
And presenting the claim is not the last deadline. Once the entity mails or delivers a written rejection, Government Code 945.6 gives you six months from the date of that notice to file suit. If the entity never sends a written rejection, the period is two years from when the cause of action accrued instead. A claim that is ignored therefore leaves more time than one that is formally rejected, which is the opposite of what most people expect.
If the operator is a private company, such as a charter coach, a tour operator or a private shuttle, the ordinary two-year deadline under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 applies and there is no written claim step.
Long Beach Transit is worth a paragraph of its own, because it is neither of the simple cases. It is a separate organization from the City of Long Beach, with its own board, appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council, and its own general counsel. It is not one of the city’s departments, so a claim about a Long Beach Transit bus is not something to file at the city counter on the assumption that it will land in the right place.
What we do about that is establish it, immediately, rather than guess. The route and the deadline are confirmed at the outset of the case, because the difference between six months and two years is not something to discover later, and filing in the wrong place is not the same as filing.
If a city vehicle, a road defect or a public employee contributed to the collision, that part of the claim is a public entity claim in its own right, and in Long Beach a claim against the City is filed with the City Clerk at 411 West Ocean Blvd.
Everyone a Bus Collision Injures
These claims are not only brought by passengers, and people rule themselves out wrongly.
- Passengers, who are owed the utmost care and diligence under Civil Code 2100.
- Pedestrians and cyclists, who are frequently the most seriously hurt.
- Occupants of other vehicles involved in the collision.
- People injured boarding or alighting, including at the stop itself.
The Evidence Is Mostly Somebody Else’s
Buses tend to be well documented, which helps only if the material is preserved.
Onboard and forward-facing camera systems, driver logs, maintenance and inspection records, scheduling and dispatch data and internal incident reports all sit with the operator, and none of them arrives because you asked politely. Retention varies by operator and by system, and is set by them rather than by any rule we can point you to.
What that means practically is that early notice matters more here than in an ordinary car claim. Where the operator is a public entity, it matters twice over, because the claim deadline is short as well.
What you can do yourself: note the route and the bus number, photograph the interior and the stop, get the details of other passengers before everybody disperses, and report the injury to the operator so that a dated record exists.
Getting the Collision Report
For a collision on a Long Beach street the report comes from the Long Beach Police Department, through its Collision Investigation Detail. The fee is $29, non-refundable, per application. The Records Division is on 562-570-7381. Collision reports are not released through the Public Records Act process, so a PRA request is not the route and the time spent on one is lost.
Where Would the Case Be Heard?
At the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, 275 Magnolia. Since October 2022 the Los Angeles Superior Court has assigned newly filed personal injury cases to the judicial district where the incident arose, so a Long Beach collision is heard in Long Beach. A claim seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case.
Not sure who operated the bus?
That single fact sets your deadline, and it can be six months rather than two years. We establish it at the outset.
Long Beach Bus Accident FAQs
Can you sue a bus driver?
You can bring a claim arising from a bus driver’s negligence, though in practice the claim usually runs against the operator that employs them rather than against the driver personally, because an employer is responsible for what an employee does within the scope of their work. That matters to you because the operator is the party with insurance. Where the operator is a public entity, a written claim normally has to be presented within six months before any lawsuit, and that short deadline is the one most likely to end a claim on procedure.
What are the four proofs of negligence?
Duty, breach, causation and damages. Duty means the other party owed you a legal obligation to take care. Breach means they fell short of it. Causation means that failure actually caused your injury. Damages means you suffered a real loss as a result. In a bus case the duty element is unusual: under Civil Code 2100 a carrier of persons for reward owes passengers the utmost care and diligence, which is a higher standard than the ordinary care owed by a private driver, so conduct that might not breach the ordinary duty can still breach this one.
How long do I have to bring a bus accident claim?
It depends on who operated the bus, which is why establishing that comes first. Against a private operator, such as a charter coach or a private shuttle, the ordinary deadline is two years from the date of injury. Where the operator is a public entity, a written claim normally has to be presented within six months, and no lawsuit can be brought until it has been presented and the entity has either acted on it or is treated as having rejected it, which happens automatically if it does not act within 45 days. Because the answer turns on the operator rather than on the crash, it is worth confirming quickly rather than assuming either way.
Is Long Beach Transit part of the City of Long Beach?
No. Long Beach Transit is a separate organization from the City, with its own board of directors, appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council, and its own general counsel. It is not listed among the City’s departments. The practical consequence is that a claim about a Long Beach Transit bus should not simply be filed at the City counter on the assumption it will reach the right place, and that the correct route and deadline are worth confirming at the outset of a case rather than later.
I was a pedestrian, not a passenger. Does that change anything?
It changes which duty applies rather than whether you have a claim. The heightened carrier duty under Civil Code 2100 is owed to the people being carried. As a pedestrian or another road user you are owed the ordinary duty of reasonable care, which is the same standard that applies in any other collision, and the claim proceeds on that basis. Everything about deadlines and operators above applies to you in the same way.
How much do accident attorneys charge in California?
These claims are handled on contingency, so there is no fee unless we win, with case costs advanced rather than billed to you as they arise. The review itself costs nothing.
Contact a Culver Legal Long Beach Bus Accident Lawyer
A carrier owes passengers the utmost care and diligence, not ordinary care. And who operated the bus sets your deadline, which can be six months rather than two years. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
