If you were hurt on a bus in Fresno, the most important thing on this page is a deadline, and it is much shorter than the one almost everybody assumes.
FAX, Fresno Area Express, is a department of the City of Fresno. It is not a private company and it is not an independent transit district. That makes the City of Fresno the defendant, and a claim against a public entity has to be presented in writing within six months, not two years.
Culver Legal, LLP represents injured passengers and road users across the Central Valley from an office at 1690 W Shaw Avenue, Suite 220 (by appointment only) in Fresno. We work on contingency and advance the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. If there is no recovery, you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
Who Operated the Bus, and What Does That Change?
Everything about the deadline, so it is the first question in the case.
FAX. A City of Fresno department, run out of the city’s Transportation department. Government Code 911.2 requires a written claim within six months, and until it has been presented there is no lawsuit to file.
A school bus. A district-operated bus makes the school district the defendant. It is a public entity in its own right, on its own six-month clock. Families miss this one more than any other, because a child’s injury takes time to declare itself and nobody tells the parents a clock started on the day.
A charter, tour, employee shuttle or intercity coach. These are private operators, so the ordinary two-year limit under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 applies and they carry commercial policies.
You do not have to have been a passenger. Somebody in a car, on a bicycle or on foot who is struck by a bus is on the operator’s clock, not their own.
Where the claim actually goes
A claim against the City of Fresno is presented to the Risk Management Division, 2600 Fresno Street, Room 1030. Not to the City Clerk. And the city requires claims to be filed in duplicate, which is its own published instruction.
There is a tidy coincidence worth knowing: FAX is administered from 2600 Fresno Street as well, so the operator and the counter that receives the claim are at the same address.
Were you hurt on a FAX bus?
FAX is the city, so the deadline is six months rather than two years. Do not wait for paperwork.
A Bus Company Owes You More Than Ordinary Care
Civil Code 2100 requires a common carrier of persons to use the utmost care and diligence for their safe carriage, and to provide everything necessary for that purpose.
That is a higher standard than the ordinary duty of care owed by a driver on the road, and it applies to a public operator as much as a private one. In practice it means the question is not simply whether the driver did something obviously wrong. It is whether the operator did everything it reasonably could: maintenance, inspection, training, supervision and the condition of the vehicle itself.
Passengers are also standing, without seat belts, on a vehicle that stops hard. A sudden stop or a sharp turn that a car occupant would barely register can produce a serious injury on a bus, and that is squarely within the carrier’s duty rather than outside it.
What Should You Do, and What Gets Lost?
- Write down the bus number and the route before you leave. On a public-entity claim, those two details do more to identify the correct defendant than anything else at the scene.
- Get medical attention the same day, even for something that seems minor.
- Report it to the driver or the operator and ask for an incident number.
- Photograph the interior, including where you were standing or seated.
- Get names from other passengers, who scatter within minutes and are almost impossible to find later.
Onboard camera footage is the evidence that decides most of these cases, and it is on a retention loop. A preservation request has to reach the operator before the loop comes round.
Where Will You Be Treated, and Where Would the Case Be Heard?
Community Regional Medical Center, 2823 Fresno Street, describes itself as the only Level I trauma center between Los Angeles and Sacramento, verified at that level by the American College of Surgeons. Where the ambulance took you determines who holds the imaging and the trauma activation record, and on a public-entity claim those matter more than usual, because the claim has to be presented while treatment is still running.
A bus injury claim seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case, filed at the B. F. Sisk Courthouse, 1130 O Street, and heard in Fresno County before a Fresno County jury.
Children Are Treated Differently, But Not As Differently As Parents Expect
Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while an injured person is under 18. That sounds like there is time, and for a private operator there generally is.
The six-month government claim is not paused the same way.
So a child hurt on a school bus, or on a FAX bus, needs an adult acting within months rather than years. This is the single most costly misunderstanding on this page, and it is the reason the page exists in the form it does.
Was your child hurt on a school bus?
Being a minor does not pause the six-month government deadline. Call before it runs.
Why Do Fresno Clients Choose Culver Legal?
We are in Fresno, at 1690 W Shaw Avenue, Suite 220 (by appointment only), and where you cannot travel we come to you.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean.
The economics are simple. Contingency, costs advanced, nothing up front and no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day.
Fresno Bus Accident FAQs
I was hurt on a FAX bus. Is my deadline really six months?
Treat it as six months and act now. FAX is a department of the City of Fresno rather than a private company, so Government Code 911.2 requires a written claim to be presented to the city before any lawsuit, within six months of the injury. It goes to Risk Management at 2600 Fresno Street, Room 1030, and the city asks for it in duplicate. Do not wait for a police report or for treatment to finish; the deadline does not pause for either.
Can I sue the bus driver?
The driver can be named, but the employer is the defendant that matters, because a public employer is responsible for what its employee does in the course of the job and it is the one carrying the money. The more useful point is that suing the driver does not escape the six-month claim requirement. The claim still has to be presented to the entity first.
Nobody gave me any paperwork and the bus drove off. Do I still have a claim?
Yes. The operator holds the records that matter, including maintenance logs, driver history and onboard camera footage, and those are obtained through the claim rather than handed over at the scene. What helps most is anything you noted at the time: the route, the bus number, the time, and the direction of travel.
The operator says the driver did nothing wrong. Does that end it?
Not necessarily. A common carrier owes passengers the utmost care under Civil Code 2100, which is a higher standard than ordinary care. The question is whether the operator did everything it reasonably could, including maintenance, training and supervision, not simply whether the driver made an obvious mistake.
My child was hurt on a school bus. Do we have until they turn 18?
No, and this is the misunderstanding that costs families their claims. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while a child is under 18, but it does not pause the six-month government claim. A school district is a public entity, so an adult needs to act within months.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either. It cannot be raised at trial and it cannot be asked about beforehand. It is not a question we ask you, and it is not a question the other side gets to ask.
Contact a Culver Legal Fresno Bus Accident Lawyer
Six months is not long, and it starts on the day of the injury rather than on the day somebody explains the rule to you. If you or your child was hurt on a bus anywhere in Fresno or the surrounding Central Valley, reach us at (310) 600-7881 at any hour, or at 1690 W Shaw Avenue, Suite 220 (by appointment only). 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.
