Common Carriers

Elderly man with a wheelchair and a four-prong cane (for when he wants to walk) boarded a bus. When the bus operator failed to hear his request to stop at his bus stop, he approached the operator and berated her. She stopped at the next bus stop and lowered the wheelchair ramp for him to alight. When he continued to berate her and not alight, she raised the ramp which then struck him. The bus operator then threw him and his wheelchair off the bus. Rather than close the door to the bus, the operator stood near the front door, rolled up her sleeves and told the man not to threaten her with his cane. He promptly boarded the bus with the exposed four prong cane. She knocked the cane to the side, took him off the bus, sat on him and assaulted him. (All of this is captured on the bus digital recording system.) The matter goes to trial on the theory that the common carrier was responsible for the elder abuse of the operator.

A young man from Italy was studying at UCLA for the summer. He was riding a bus back to his apartment late at night. Not knowing the area, he was standing near the front of the bus keeping an eye out for his stop. The bus operator fell asleep and ran the bus head-on into a tree. The student flew into the front windshield sustaining rather significant injuries.

A bus was pulling away from a bus stop having just come out of a curve on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The bus was rear-ended by a passenger truck causing injuries to the truck driver, his passenger and four on-board passengers. After settling all claims for arguably negligently pulling the bus into the through traffic lane, one patron refused to settle and the matter went to trial.

Numerous cases involving on-board patrons claiming any variety of injuries and damages when a bus operator braked too hard, was driving at a speed unsafe for the conditions, lowered a wheelchair ramp onto patrons attempting to board a bus, and/or closing bus doors onto patrons alighting from a bus.

Numerous cases where patrons were attacked/assaulted by another patron. These events range from relatively minor assaults without lasting injuries to stabbings requiring hospitalization.