Austin and central Texas · Travis · Williamson · Hays · Bastrop
Hurt on a bus, or hit by one, in Austin
If the bus was public transit or a school bus, the clock on your claim is not two years. Texas requires written notice to the government body within six months, and the City of Austin tells claimants to send it within 45 days. Missing that letter ends a claim that would otherwise have been straightforward. Se habla español.
Call now and speak with a lawyer today.
Rather have us call you? Fill out the formFill out the form and we will reach you today.
We handle these claims across Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown, San Marcos, Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Kyle, Buda, Hutto, Taylor, Manor, Bastrop, Lakeway, Bee Cave and Dripping Springs.
Free consultation · No fee unless we win · Immigration status does not stop a claim
On this page
The short answer
Everything about a bus claim turns on who owned the bus. A privately operated bus is an ordinary commercial vehicle claim with a two-year filing deadline. A public transit bus or a school bus belongs to a government body, and a claim against a government body in Texas runs under the Tort Claims Act: a short written notice deadline, a statutory cap on damages, no exemplary damages, and a rule that permanently destroys the claim if you sue the wrong defendant first.
Government immunity is waived for exactly this kind of crash
Section 101.021(1) makes a governmental unit liable for personal injury and death proximately caused by the negligence of an employee acting within the scope of employment where the injury arises from the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle, and where the employee would be personally liable under Texas law. A bus being driven is the operation of a motor-driven vehicle. This is the clearest part of the waiver.
People ask this as "can you even sue the city" or "can you sue a school district".
The notice deadline is the whole ballgame
Section 101.101(a) entitles a governmental unit to notice of the claim not later than six months after the incident, describing the injury, the time and place, and the incident. Section 101.101(b) then ratifies city charter and ordinance provisions requiring notice within a shorter charter period, and the City of Austin instructs claimants to send a letter within 45 days.
People ask this as "how long do I have to sue the city of Austin".
A transit authority is a governmental unit by statute
Section 451.052(c) of the Transportation Code provides that an authority is a governmental unit under Chapter 101 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and that the operations of the authority are not proprietary functions for any purpose, including the application of that chapter. There is no argument to be had about whether running buses is a governmental function.
A school district is immune, except as to motor vehicles
Section 101.051 provides that except as to motor vehicles, the Tort Claims Act does not apply to a school district or a junior college district. A school bus crash is therefore one of the narrow categories of claim that can reach a district at all, which is a point in an injured family's favour and worth knowing.
If a public bus or a school bus was involved, the single most useful thing you can do today is get the written notice letter sent. It is short, it costs nothing, and it is the difference between having a claim and not having one.
The deadline that is measured in days, not years
Almost every page about Texas injury claims tells you the deadline is two years. For a claim against a government body that is wrong in a way that ends cases.
Section 101.101(a) says a governmental unit is entitled to receive notice of a claim against it not later than six months after the day the incident occurred, and that the notice must reasonably describe the damage or injury claimed, the time and place of the incident, and the incident itself. Those are three specific contents, and a letter that omits one of them invites an argument about whether notice was given at all.
Section 101.101(b) then does the thing most people never hear about: it ratifies and approves a city's charter and ordinance provisions requiring notice within a shorter charter period. A city is permitted to demand notice in far less than six months, and cities do.
The City of Austin's Law Department instructs anyone filing a claim against the City to send a letter within 45 days of the incident, setting out the date, time and location, a description of what occurred, the type of damage or nature of the injury, copies of invoices, receipts or estimates, any supporting documentation such as photographs or a police report, and a full mailing address and daytime telephone number. It gives an email address, a post office box and a fax number for delivery.
Forty-five days after a crash that put someone in a hospital is not a long time. It is often less time than it takes to get the crash report, and it can pass while the injured person is still an inpatient. The practical rule is to treat 45 days as the deadline, send the letter early, and send it even where you are still working out exactly who is responsible.
There is one relief valve. Section 101.101(c) provides that the notice requirements do not apply where the governmental unit has actual notice that death has occurred, that the claimant has received some injury, or that the claimant's property has been damaged. Actual notice is a doctrine that gets litigated hard, and it is a defence to rely on rather than a plan to depend on.
What a notice letter costs to send: nothing. What it costs to have not sent one: the entire claim. The asymmetry is the reason to make the call in the first week.
Which bus you were on decides which law applies
Before anything else, the bus has to be identified. The same crash produces very different deadlines depending on the answer.
| Type of bus | What governs the claim |
|---|---|
| Public transit bus | Texas Tort Claims Act. A transit authority is a governmental unit by Transportation Code § 451.052(c), and its operations are never proprietary. Short notice deadline, statutory cap, no exemplary damages. |
| School bus operated by a district | Tort Claims Act, and § 101.051 makes motor vehicle claims the exception that reaches a school district at all. Same notice and cap structure. |
| School bus operated by a private contractor for a district | Depends on the contract and on who employed the driver. § 101.001(2) excludes an independent contractor and its employees from "employee". This changes both the defendant and the deadline, and it has to be established early. |
| City-operated shuttle or a municipal vehicle | Tort Claims Act. A municipality is liable for its governmental functions, and § 101.0215(a)(22) lists transportation systems among them. |
| University or college shuttle | Depends on the institution. A state institution is a governmental unit; a private one is not. Junior college districts sit under the § 101.051 motor-vehicle exception. |
| Charter, tour or intercity coach | Ordinary commercial vehicle claim. Two-year deadline, no cap, and the federal motor carrier rules apply where the carrier operates in interstate commerce. |
| Hotel, airport or employer shuttle | Ordinary commercial claim against the operator and its insurer. |
| Church, camp or activity bus | Ordinary claim. Whether the federal rules apply turns on passenger capacity and whether passengers are carried for compensation. |
TxDOT lists Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority among the state's metropolitan, regional and county transit authorities in its 2024 Texas Transit Statistics report, and states that Transportation Code chapters 451, 452 and 457 establish the requirements, powers and duties of those authorities. Which chapter a particular authority was created under is a fact to confirm at the start of a case, because it decides the deadline.
The identification problem is real. A bus in a livery does not necessarily belong to the entity whose name is painted on it, the driver may be employed by a contractor, and the vehicle may be leased. That is a records question with a short fuse attached, and it is the reason to send a notice letter to every plausible government body rather than to wait until you are certain.
What the Tort Claims Act actually allows
Sovereign immunity is the default in Texas. Chapter 101 is the exception, and it is narrower than people expect — which is why the part that covers vehicle crashes is worth understanding precisely.
The motor vehicle waiver
Section 101.021(1) creates liability for property damage, personal injury and death proximately caused by the wrongful act or omission or the negligence of an employee acting within the scope of employment, where the injury arises from the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle or motor-driven equipment, and where the employee would be personally liable to the claimant under Texas law. All of those elements have to be present.
The tangible property waiver
Section 101.021(2) separately creates liability for personal injury and death caused by a condition or use of tangible personal or real property where the governmental unit would be liable were it a private person. This is the route for a defective step, a broken grab rail, a door that closed on someone, or a wheelchair securement that failed.
The employee has to be an employee
Section 101.001(2) defines an employee as a person in the paid service of a governmental unit by competent authority, and expressly excludes an independent contractor, an agent or employee of an independent contractor, and a person performing tasks the details of which the unit has no legal right to control. Contracted-out operations turn the analysis on its head.
The unit has to be a governmental unit
Section 101.001(3) defines it broadly: the state and its agencies, any political subdivision including a city, a county, a school district and a junior college district, an emergency service organisation, and any other institution or organ of government whose status and authority derive from the Texas Constitution or from legislation.
No exemplary damages
Section 101.024 states flatly that the chapter does not authorise exemplary damages. However bad the conduct was, punitive damages are unavailable against the governmental unit under this chapter.
Where suit is filed
Section 101.102(a) requires the suit to be brought in state court in the county in which the cause of action or part of it arises, and Section 101.102(b) requires the pleadings to name the governmental unit itself as defendant.
The damages caps, and what they mean in practice
Section 101.023 limits what can be recovered from a governmental unit under the Act, and the limit depends on which kind of body it is.
| Type of governmental unit | Bodily injury or death | Property |
|---|---|---|
| State government | $250,000 per person / $500,000 per occurrence | $100,000 per occurrence |
| Municipality | $250,000 per person / $500,000 per occurrence | $100,000 per occurrence |
| Other unit of local government | $100,000 per person / $300,000 per occurrence | $100,000 per occurrence |
| Emergency service organisation | $100,000 per person / $300,000 per occurrence | $100,000 per occurrence |
Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 101.023, read 2026-08-16. Which subsection applies to a particular entity is a legal question decided on that entity's statutory character, and it is one of the first things to establish in a bus case.
Two consequences follow, and both are practical rather than theoretical. First, a per-occurrence cap is shared. Where a bus crash injures fifteen people, the occurrence limit is divided among all of the claims, which makes the timing and the strength of each individual claim matter in a way it does not in an ordinary two-car collision.
Second, the cap applies to the governmental unit, and it does not reach other defendants. Where a private driver caused the crash and the transit vehicle was struck, the private driver's liability is not capped by Chapter 101 at all. Where a maintenance contractor, a parts manufacturer or a private carrier shares responsibility, the same is true. Identifying every non-governmental defendant is therefore worth real money in these cases, and it is a reason not to treat the cap as the ceiling on the case before the investigation is done.
Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage sits outside the Act as well. Where the recoverable amount from the government body is capped below the harm, that coverage is a separate contract claim and it is worth checking every auto policy in the household.
The election-of-remedies trap
Section 101.106 is the provision that turns a good claim into no claim, and it does it quietly.
Subsection (a): filing a suit under the Act against a governmental unit constitutes an irrevocable election by the plaintiff and immediately and forever bars any suit or recovery against any individual employee of that unit regarding the same subject matter.
Subsection (b): filing suit against any employee of a governmental unit constitutes an irrevocable election and immediately and forever bars any suit or recovery against the governmental unit regarding the same subject matter, unless the unit consents.
Subsection (c): settling a claim under the chapter immediately and forever bars any suit against or recovery from any employee of the same unit on the same subject matter. Subsection (d): a judgment against an employee bars any suit against or recovery from the unit.
Subsection (e): where suit is filed against both the unit and its employees, the employees are to be dismissed immediately on the unit's motion.
Read those together and the shape of the trap is clear. A person hurt by a transit bus who does the natural thing — sues the driver, whose name is on the crash report — has, on the filing of that petition, irrevocably barred the claim against the agency that actually has the money and the insurance. The words in the statute are "immediately and forever". There is no correcting it afterwards.
This is the single strongest reason not to file anything in a government bus case without knowing precisely who owns the vehicle, who employed the driver, and whether the driver was in the scope of employment. It is also why the notice letter, which is not a suit, is the right first move.
School buses
School bus claims sit in their own corner of the law, and the corner is more favourable than most people assume.
A district is immune from nearly everything except this
Section 101.051 provides that except as to motor vehicles, the Tort Claims Act does not apply to a school district or a junior college district. Almost every other kind of claim against a district fails on immunity. A claim arising from the operation of a school bus is the exception the legislature wrote.
Passing a stopped school bus is a serious offense
Section 545.066 requires a driver approaching from either direction a school bus stopped to load or unload students to stop while the bus operates its visual signal, and to remain stopped until the bus moves, the driver signals them on, or the signal stops. The fine runs from $500 to $1,250, rises to $1,000 to $2,000 for a second offense within five years, becomes a Class A misdemeanor where the driver causes serious bodily injury, and a state jail felony on a prior conviction of that kind. A court may suspend the licence of a repeat offender for up to six months.
People ask this as "someone passed the school bus and hit my kid".
The exceptions to the stopping rule
Section 545.066(b) does not require a driver to stop for a school bus on a different roadway of a divided highway, or, on a controlled-access highway, for a bus stopped in a loading zone that is part of or adjacent to the highway where pedestrians are not permitted to cross. Those two exceptions are frequently misdescribed.
Injuries on the bus, not just crashes
A student hurt by a defective seat, a door, a lift or a wheelchair securement may have a claim under the tangible property waiver in Section 101.021(2) rather than the vehicle waiver. Whether it fits the waiver is a genuine legal question, and it is one worth putting to a lawyer rather than assuming the answer.
The claim belongs to the child, and the notice deadline still runs
A minor's claim has its own timing rules for filing suit, and a settlement for a minor has its own approval requirements. The Tort Claims Act notice provision is a separate matter and should be treated as running from the incident. Do not assume a child's age extends the notice letter.
Who employed the driver
Districts sometimes contract out transportation. Section 101.001(2) excludes an independent contractor and its employees from the definition of employee, so a contracted operation changes both who the defendant is and which deadline governs. Establish it early.
Charter, tour and intercity buses
A privately operated coach is an ordinary commercial vehicle case: two years to file, no statutory cap, and a set of federal safety rules that create both duties and records.
When federal motor carrier rules apply
Under 49 CFR 390.5, a commercial motor vehicle includes a vehicle used in interstate commerce that has a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, or is designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers including the driver for compensation, or is designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers including the driver and is not used to carry passengers for compensation. A full-size coach clears every one of those thresholds; a fifteen-passenger van carrying passengers for money clears the second.
People ask this as "do the federal trucking rules apply to a bus".
Hours of service for passenger carriers
The passenger rule in 49 CFR 395.5 is its own standard, not the truck one. A driver of a passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicle may not drive more than 10 hours following 8 consecutive hours off duty, nor drive at all after being on duty 15 hours following 8 consecutive hours off duty. Weekly limits are 60 hours in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days where the carrier operates every day of the week.
Why the hours matter to your case
Those limits are enforced through records the carrier is required to keep. Duty status records, dispatch and trip documents, and telematics from the vehicle are the material that shows whether a driver was inside or outside the rule at the moment of the crash. Those records exist because federal law requires them, and they are requested in writing, immediately.
Texas adopts the federal standards for intrastate carriers too
Chapter 644 of the Transportation Code is the state's commercial motor vehicle safety standards regime, under which Texas adopts and enforces federal safety rules. A carrier operating only inside Texas is not outside the safety framework.
The claim is against the carrier, not only the driver
Hiring, training, supervision, maintenance, scheduling and route decisions are the carrier's. Where a crash traces to a driver who should never have been behind the wheel or a vehicle that should never have left the yard, the claim runs against the company directly and not merely through the driver.
No cap, and no six-month letter
A private carrier is not a governmental unit. The Tort Claims Act does not apply, the caps do not apply, the notice provision does not apply, and the deadline is the ordinary two years under Section 16.003. The difference between this paragraph and the transit sections above is exactly why identifying the operator comes first.
If you were a passenger on the bus
A passenger is almost never at fault, which removes the comparative-responsibility fight that dominates most crash claims. What replaces it is a different problem: establishing that the injury happened, and happened then.
Buses stop hard, swerve, and take corners with people standing. A passenger thrown into a stanchion or onto the floor often has no visible damage to point at, no vehicle of their own to photograph, and no crash report naming them. The remedy is to be recorded as a passenger at the time: report the injury to the driver before leaving, ask that an incident report be made, and get medical attention the same day.
Not every hard stop is negligence. A bus braking sharply to avoid a car that pulled out is doing the right thing, and the claim in that situation runs against the car. The facts that separate the two are captured on the vehicle's own cameras and telematics, which is another reason the preservation request has to go early.
Where the injury came from the vehicle itself rather than from how it was driven — a step, a door, a grab rail, a lift, a securement that failed — Section 101.021(2) is the relevant waiver, covering personal injury caused by a condition or use of tangible property.
A passenger claim against a government operator carries the same notice deadline as any other. Six months under the statute, and 45 days on the City of Austin's own instruction. The fact that the agency knows a bus made an emergency stop does not mean it has notice that you were hurt.
If a bus hit you
The analysis is the same whether you were driving, walking or riding. The differences are physical, and they matter to how the case is proved.
In another vehicle
A loaded transit or coach bus weighs many times what a car does. Stopping distance, off-tracking through a turn and the length of the blind areas along the sides are the engineering facts that explain most bus-versus-car collisions, and they are established by measurement rather than by argument.
On foot
Pedestrian strikes involving buses cluster around stops, where people cross to or from the far side of a wide road. The pedestrian right-of-way rules in Chapter 552 apply exactly as they do to any other vehicle, including the duty of due care in Section 552.008 that applies notwithstanding anything else in the chapter.
On a bicycle
A bus pulling to and from a curb crosses a bike lane twice at every stop. Section 551.101 gives a rider the rights and duties of a driver, and the passing rule in Section 545.053 requires a safe distance with no number attached.
The mirror and the right turn
A bus turning right swings its rear across the space beside it. Anyone stopped in that space at the moment of the turn is in a place the driver cannot see and the vehicle is about to occupy. This is a recurring pattern and it is a driver-training issue as much as a moment-of-crash issue.
Multiple claimants, one occurrence
Where a bus crash injures several people and the operator is a governmental unit, the per-occurrence cap in Section 101.023 is shared across every claim arising from it. Being early and being documented both matter more than usual.
What a bus records, and how long it keeps it
A modern bus is one of the most heavily instrumented vehicles on the road, which is good news that expires quickly.
The categories worth demanding in writing within days: interior and exterior camera footage, which on transit vehicles typically covers several angles simultaneously; automatic vehicle location and telematics data showing position, speed, braking and door events; the driver's duty and assignment records; the maintenance and inspection history for that vehicle; any incident or supervisor report generated after the crash; and the radio or dispatch log from the minutes around it.
None of that is kept indefinitely. Video systems overwrite on a cycle set by the operator, and a request made a month later frequently arrives after the loop has come around. The preservation letter is the mechanism, it is sent immediately, and it should name the categories specifically rather than ask generally for "all evidence".
For an interstate carrier, add the records the federal rules require: duty status records under the hours-of-service regime, the driver qualification file, and inspection and maintenance documentation. Those exist because 49 CFR requires them.
Independent footage is not subject to the operator's retention schedule. Businesses along the route, other drivers, and passengers' own phones frequently hold the clearest view of what happened, and they are worth canvassing on the day.
A preservation demand is not a lawsuit and it does not commit you to one. It is a letter that stops the clock on the evidence while everything else is worked out.
What the Austin crash data cannot tell you about buses
This page carries no Austin bus crash count, and the reason is worth stating plainly because other pages do carry one.
The City of Austin publishes a crash-level record covering crashes inside the full-purpose city limits, sourced from TxDOT's Crash Records Information System. It classifies the units in each crash into ten categories: Bicycle, E-scooter, Large passenger vehicle, Micromobility device, Motor vehicle – other, Motorcycle, Other/Unknown, Passenger car, Pedestrian and Train.
There is no bus category. "Large passenger vehicle" is the SUV, van and pickup class, and reading it as a bus would inflate the number by orders of magnitude. Any figure presented as an Austin bus crash count derived from this dataset is either drawn from a different source that should be named, or it is invented.
We would rather say that than publish a number we cannot stand behind. Where a figure specific to a particular operator is needed in a case, it comes from that operator's own records obtained through the claim, not from a public dataset that does not contain it.
Where these crashes happen in the Austin area
No crash count is attached to any location named here. This is the geography, which is what explains the crash.
The transit spines
North and South Lamar, Congress Avenue, Guadalupe through the campus, Burnet Road, Airport Boulevard, East Riverside, Manor Road and the routes feeding downtown. Frequent curb pulls across a bike lane, passengers crossing to and from the far side, and vehicles queued behind a stopped bus pulling out to pass.
Downtown and the transit centre
The dense grid of one-way streets where buses share narrow lanes with delivery vehicles, rideshare pickups and heavy foot traffic. Turning movements here are tight and the swept path of a coach covers more than its lane.
Park and ride lots and the highway approaches
The I-35 corridor, US-183, Ben White and MoPac, plus the express routes that use them. Higher speeds, merging across multiple lanes, and long stopping distances for a loaded vehicle.
School zones and neighbourhood streets
Loading and unloading happens at the curb on residential streets with parked cars and limited sight lines, at fixed times, with children crossing in front of the vehicle. Section 545.066 governs every driver approaching in either direction.
The intercity corridors
I-35 north to Georgetown and Waco and south to San Marcos and San Antonio, US-290 east and west, and TX-71 toward Bastrop and toward the Hill Country. This is where charter and intercity coach crashes happen, and where the federal hours-of-service records become central.
The suburbs
Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville, Hutto, Kyle, Buda, San Marcos, Manor, Taylor, Bastrop, Lakeway, Bee Cave and Dripping Springs, each with its own school district running its own buses. A claim from any of them is filed in Williamson, Hays, Bastrop or Travis County, and each district is its own governmental unit for the notice letter.
Deadlines, in order of urgency
Bus claims have more than one clock running, and the shortest one is not the one people know about.
| Deadline | What it applies to |
|---|---|
| Days — preservation | No statute sets it. Camera and telematics data is overwritten on the operator's own cycle, so the written preservation demand goes out immediately. |
| 45 days — City of Austin claim letter | The City's Law Department instruction for filing a claim against the City. Section 101.101(b) ratifies shorter charter notice periods, so a city instruction of this kind has to be treated as real. |
| 6 months — Tort Claims Act notice | Section 101.101(a). Written notice to the governmental unit describing the injury, the time and place, and the incident. This is the statutory floor, not a safe target. |
| 2 years — filing suit | Section 16.003. Personal injury generally, and a claim for injury resulting in death running from the date of death. |
Different rules apply to a minor's claim and to wrongful death and survival claims. None of them is a reason to delay, because the notice letter and the preservation demand both fall due long before any of them.
The order matters. Notice is not a lawsuit and preservation is not a lawsuit. Both can be done while you are still deciding whether to bring one, and doing them costs nothing but keeps every option open. Filing the wrong lawsuit, by contrast, can close the door permanently under Section 101.106.
What hiring a lawyer costs
The consultation is free and it commits you to nothing. If we take the case we work on a contingency fee, so the fee is a percentage of the recovery and there is no fee unless we win. The percentage is written into the agreement before you sign it.
Case expenses — records, filing fees, reconstruction, experts, depositions — are advanced rather than billed to you as they arise, and how they are handled at the end is set out in the same written agreement.
A person injured by someone else's negligence in Texas may bring a claim regardless of immigration status.
Common questions
What people ask after a bus crash in the Austin area.
Can you sue a public transit agency in Texas?
Yes, within limits. Section 451.052(c) of the Transportation Code makes a transit authority a governmental unit under the Tort Claims Act and provides that its operations are not proprietary functions for any purpose. Chapter 101 then waives immunity for injury arising from an employee's operation of a motor-driven vehicle. What comes with that is a short notice deadline and a statutory cap on damages.
How long do I have to file a claim against the City of Austin?
The statute gives a governmental unit the right to notice within six months under Section 101.101(a), and Section 101.101(b) ratifies shorter city charter notice periods. The City of Austin's Law Department instructs claimants to send a letter within 45 days of the incident. Treat 45 days as the working deadline.
What has to be in the notice letter?
Section 101.101(a) requires the notice to reasonably describe the damage or injury claimed, the time and place of the incident, and the incident itself. The City of Austin additionally asks for the date, time and location, a description of what occurred, the nature of the injury, copies of invoices, receipts or estimates, supporting documentation such as photographs or a police report, and a full mailing address and daytime phone number.
Can I sue a school district over a school bus crash?
Yes, and this is one of the few claims that reaches a district. Section 101.051 provides that except as to motor vehicles, the Tort Claims Act does not apply to a school district or a junior college district. A claim arising from the operation of a school bus is the motor vehicle exception.
Is there a limit on what I can recover from a government body?
Yes. Section 101.023 caps liability at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence for the state and for a municipality, and at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence for other units of local government. Section 101.024 also states that the chapter does not authorise exemplary damages. The cap applies to the governmental unit and does not limit a private driver or contractor who shares responsibility.
I want to sue the bus driver. Is that the right move?
Usually it is the opposite. Section 101.106(b) provides that filing suit against an employee of a governmental unit immediately and forever bars any suit or recovery against the unit on the same subject matter, unless the unit consents. Suing the driver named on the crash report can permanently destroy the claim against the agency that carries the coverage.
I was hurt on a bus but there was no crash. Do I have a claim?
Possibly. A hard stop or a swerve can be negligent operation under Section 101.021(1), and an injury caused by the condition or use of the vehicle itself — a step, a door, a grab rail, a lift, a securement — can fall under Section 101.021(2). Report it to the driver before you leave, ask for an incident report, and get medical attention the same day, because there is no crash report naming you.
A driver passed a stopped school bus and hit my child.
Section 545.066 required that driver to stop while the bus was operating its visual signal and to stay stopped until the bus moved, the bus driver signalled them on, or the signal stopped. The offense carries a fine of $500 to $1,250, rises for a repeat offense within five years, becomes a Class A misdemeanor where the driver causes serious bodily injury, and a state jail felony on a prior conviction of that kind. The civil claim runs against that driver and their insurer.
Do the federal trucking rules apply to buses?
To many of them, yes. Under 49 CFR 390.5 a commercial motor vehicle includes one used in interstate commerce that is designed or used to carry more than 8 passengers including the driver for compensation, or more than 15 passengers including the driver not for compensation, or that has a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more. Passenger carriers have their own hours-of-service limits in 49 CFR 395.5.
How long does the bus keep its camera footage?
That is set by the operator, not by law, and systems overwrite on a cycle. A written preservation demand naming the specific categories — interior and exterior video, telematics and location data, door and braking events, driver assignment records, maintenance history, dispatch logs — needs to go out in the first days rather than the first month.
What if a private company runs the buses for the city or the school district?
That changes the analysis. Section 101.001(2) excludes an independent contractor and its employees from the definition of employee under the Act, so a contracted operation can move the claim off the government track entirely, with a different defendant and a different deadline. It is one of the first facts to establish.
Several people were hurt in the same bus crash. Does that affect my claim?
If the operator is a governmental unit, yes. The cap in Section 101.023 has a per-occurrence limit as well as a per-person limit, so the occurrence amount is shared among everyone claiming from that crash. Being documented and being early both matter more than usual.
A charter bus crashed on the way to San Antonio. Is that the same as a city bus claim?
No. A private carrier is not a governmental unit, so there is no notice letter, no cap, and the deadline is the ordinary two years. What is added instead is the federal safety framework: hours-of-service limits, duty status records, driver qualification files and maintenance documentation, all of which are demanded in writing early.
What if I do not know who owns the bus?
Send notice to every plausible government body while it is being worked out. A notice letter is not a lawsuit, it costs nothing to send, and the deadline for it runs whether or not you have identified the right defendant. Filing the wrong lawsuit is the mistake that cannot be undone; sending an extra letter is not.
What does it cost to hire a lawyer?
Nothing up front. The consultation is free and we work on a contingency fee, so there is no fee unless we win your case. The percentage is stated in writing before you sign anything.
Does my immigration status matter?
No. A person injured by someone else's negligence in Texas may bring a claim regardless of immigration status.
Sources
Every statement of law above was read from the official Texas statute text and from the eCFR on 2026-08-16. The City of Austin claim instruction and the TxDOT transit classification were read the same day.
- Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Chapter 101 — Texas Tort Claims Act
§ 101.001 definitions of employee and governmental unit; § 101.021 the vehicle and tangible property waivers; § 101.0215 liability of a municipality, including transportation systems as a governmental function; § 101.023 caps; § 101.024 no exemplary damages; § 101.051 school and junior college districts; § 101.101 notice; § 101.102 where suit is brought; § 101.106 election of remedies.
- Texas Transportation Code § 451.052 — nature of a metropolitan rapid transit authority
Subsection (c): an authority is a governmental unit under Chapter 101, and its operations are not proprietary functions for any purpose.
- Texas Transportation Code § 545.066 — passing a school bus; offense
- Texas Transportation Code Chapter 644 — commercial motor vehicle safety standards
- Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 16.003 — two-year limitations period
- Texas Insurance Code § 1952.101 — uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
- 49 CFR 390.5 — definition of a commercial motor vehicle
Includes the more-than-8-passengers-for-compensation and more-than-15-passengers thresholds that bring most coaches inside the federal rules.
- 49 CFR 395.5 — maximum driving time for passenger-carrying vehicles
10 hours driving after 8 consecutive hours off duty; no driving after 15 hours on duty; 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days.
- City of Austin Law Department — how to file a claim against the City
The City instructs claimants to send a letter within 45 days of the incident, and lists what it must contain. Read 2026-08-16.
- TxDOT Public Transportation Division — 2024 Texas Transit Statistics
Lists Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority among the state's metropolitan, regional and county transit authorities, and states that Transportation Code chapters 451, 452 and 457 establish their requirements, powers and duties.
- City of Austin — Austin Crash Report Data, crash-level records
Cited here for what it does not contain. The dataset classifies units into ten categories and none of them is a bus.
Talk to a lawyer today
If a public bus or a school bus was involved, the notice letter is the thing that cannot wait, and it is not something you have to work out alone. Call and we will tell you who it goes to and what it has to say. The consultation is free, it commits you to nothing, and you can have it in English or Spanish.
Call (512) 500-2810Medina & Medina Personal Injury Attorneys
6701 Burnet Rd #132, Austin, TX 78757
¿Prefiere leer esto en español? Abogado de accidentes de autobús en Austin.
This page explains Texas law as it stood on 2026-08-16. It is general information, it is not legal advice about your situation, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether a particular entity is a governmental unit, and which notice period and cap apply to it, are legal questions decided on the facts of that entity. Nothing here asserts the corporate structure, fleet or safety record of any operator. Past results do not guarantee future results. Every case is different.
Free Case Evaluation
Get a free review of your case in minutes.
Free Case Evaluation
Get a free review of your case in minutes.