First, get medical attention right away—even if you think you're just sore. Under Florida's No-Fault Law (Fla. Stat. § 627.736), you have only 14 days from the crash to see a qualified doctor, or you lose access to Personal Injury Protection (PIP) medical benefits. Under Fla. Stat. § 316.065, any crash involving an injury or at least $500 in estimated property damage must be reported to police immediately. Before leaving the scene, take photos of the bus number, license plate, route number, the driver's badge or ID, and your injuries, and get contact details from fellow passengers or witnesses. Because public and commercial buses often overwrite onboard camera footage within days, talk to a Florida bus accident lawyer before giving any recorded statement or signing a release.

Liability depends on who owned the bus and who caused the crash. If you were hurt on or hit by a county bus—such as Miami-Dade Transit (Metrobus), Broward County Transit (BCT), or Palm Tran—the county or municipal transit agency is responsible for its driver's negligence under Florida's sovereign immunity waiver (Fla. Stat. § 768.28). Under § 768.28(9)(a), the government agency itself is named in the claim rather than the individual bus driver. If the crash involved a private carrier like Greyhound, a hotel or airport shuttle, a private charter coach, or a subcontracted school bus, the private company and its commercial insurer are directly liable. And if another driver cut off or hit the bus, that driver's insurance (or your own uninsured motorist coverage) can also be pursued.

This is one of the biggest traps in Florida bus accidents: under Fla. Stat. § 627.732(1), government-owned public transit buses are exempt from Florida's PIP law and do not carry PIP coverage for passengers. Instead, if you own a car in Florida (or live with a relative who owns an insured car), your own auto policy's $10,000 PIP coverage pays first for 80% of your medical bills and 60% of your lost wages—even though you weren't in your car. If you don't own a car and don't live with an insured relative, you aren't covered by PIP at all, which means we pursue your medical bills and lost income directly from the at-fault transit agency, private bus company, or negligent driver.

For private bus accidents (like Greyhound or a tour bus) or claims against another driver, Florida gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) (shortened from four years in March 2023). If your crash involved a government bus (like Metrobus, BCT, Palm Tran, or a public school bus), Fla. Stat. § 768.28(6) requires presenting a formal written Notice of Claim to both the government agency and the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) within three years of the injury (two years for wrongful death), and you must wait through a mandatory six-month investigation period before a lawsuit can be filed. Because the two-year negligence statute and onboard video deletion happen much faster, you should act within days of the crash.

It depends on whether the bus is government-run or privately owned. If your claim is against a Florida city, county, or state agency (such as Miami-Dade Transit, BCT, Palm Tran, or a county school board), sovereign immunity under Fla. Stat. § 768.28(5) caps what the government will pay at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident total across all injured passengers, unless the Florida Legislature passes a special claims bill. However, if your crash involved a private bus company—such as Greyhound, Megabus, FlixBus, a private charter, or an airport shuttle—or if a private driver hit the bus you were riding, Florida places no statutory cap on your economic or non-economic injury damages.

Yes, as long as you were not more than 50% at fault. Under Florida's modified comparative negligence law (Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6)), you can recover compensation if your share of fault is 50% or less, with your payout reduced by your percentage of fault. However, if an insurer pushes your fault to 51%, you get nothing. Transit adjusters frequently try to blame drivers who collided with a bus—or claim an injured passenger wasn't holding the handrail—to hit that 51% cutoff. Securing the bus's interior and exterior dashcam footage early is the best way to prove what really happened.

Depending on your injuries and who caused the crash, you can pursue money for your ER visits, hospital stays, physical therapy, surgeries, future medical care, missed paychecks, reduced earning ability, and vehicle repair or replacement if your car was hit by a bus. When your injuries cross Florida's serious injury threshold under Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2)—such as a permanent injury, significant scarring, or fractures—or when a PIP-exempt transit vehicle is responsible, you can also recover compensation for physical pain, emotional trauma, and how the injury has disrupted your daily life.

You pay nothing upfront, and if there is no recovery, you owe us no fees and no costs. Our contingency fee is a set percentage of the settlement or judgment we recover for you, and we advance all investigation, record, and litigation expenses along the way. Your initial consultation with attorney Alex Senft or Scott Senft is 100% free and available 24/7.

From our South Florida offices in Dania Beach and Boca Raton, Senft Legal represents bus passengers, drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists injured across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties—including Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Homestead, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, West Palm Beach, Delray Beach, and Boynton Beach. Whether your crash involved a Metrobus, Broward County Transit, Palm Tran, a Greyhound coach, a Brightline shuttle, or a school bus, we can connect you with a nearby medical provider and start protecting your claim today.