What to Do If a School Bus or MTA Bus Caused Your Accident in Westchester or NYC

Most people who get hit by a bus in New York are told the same thing: “You have 90 days.” That advice is not wrong, but it’s incomplete, and the part that gets left out is the part that costs people money first.

There’s a shorter deadline that starts running the day after the crash. There’s also a question almost nobody thinks to ask in the first week, and getting it wrong can end a strong case before it starts: which company actually owned that bus?

At the Law Offices of Norman Gershon, we’ve spent decades on exactly these cases, including claims tried against NYC Transit, the MTA, and the New York City Board of Education. If you were in a car when the bus hit you, that’s the most common way people get seriously hurt in these crashes, and a Westchester car accident lawyer can tell you within one conversation which set of rules applies to your situation.

Below is what we wish every client knew in week one.

What Should You Do First If a School Bus or MTA Bus Caused Your Accident?

Direct answer: get medical care, then find out which legal entity owned and operated the bus, because that single fact controls every deadline in your case. If a public agency owned it, you may have as little as 90 days to serve a formal notice of claim. If a private company owned it, you may have three years. Same crash, same street, completely different rules.

We call the timing piece the Gershon Three-Clock Check, because three separate deadlines start running at the same time:

• Clock 1: 30 days to give written notice to a no-fault insurer
• Clock 2: 90 days to serve a notice of claim, if a public agency is involved
• Clock 3: One year and 90 days to actually file the lawsuit

A fourth clock runs quietly alongside all three: the bus camera footage.

Why “Which Bus Was It?” Decides Your Whole Case

In New York, your deadline isn’t set by the fact that a bus hit you. It’s set by which legal entity owned and operated that specific bus. Several different entities can run buses on the same Bronx street, and each one carries a different filing rule. A notice served on the wrong MTA entity does not count against the correct one.

New York’s Appellate Division has confirmed that the MTA and its subsidiaries are separate legal entities and are not responsible for each other’s torts (Mayayev v Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus, 74 AD3d 910, 2d Dept 2010).

Here’s how it breaks down:

Type of bus	Who’s legally responsible	Notice of claim needed?	Deadline to file suit
Most local buses in Manhattan and the Bronx	MaBSTOA (a NYCTA subsidiary)	Yes, 90 days (GML 50-e)	1 year + 90 days (PAL 1212(2))
Most local buses in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island	NYCTA	Yes, 90 days (GML 50-e)	1 year + 90 days (PAL 1212(2))
Former private lines (Bx23, Q50, Q69, Q100, most QM and BM express)	MTA Bus Company	No, but a 30-day demand is still required	1 year + 90 days (PAL 1276(2))
Westchester Bee-Line	Westchester County owns it; Liberty Lines Transit or PTLA Enterprise operates it	County: yes, 90 days. Operator: no	County: 1 year + 90 days. Operator: 3 years (CPLR 214)
NYC yellow school bus	One of 48 private vendors under DOE contract	DOE: yes, 90 days. Vendor: no	DOE: 1 year + 90 days. Vendor: 3 years
Westchester district school bus	The district, or a private contractor	District: yes, 90 days. Contractor: no	District: 1 year + 90 days. Contractor: 3 years

That third row surprises even some attorneys. Public Authorities Law 1276(6) says the notice of claim requirement does not apply to a subsidiary of the MTA, and MTA Bus Company is a subsidiary. A separate 30-day demand still applies, and the lawsuit deadline still applies. This is one of the most commonly missed distinctions in New York bus law.

Who Is Responsible for a Bee-Line Bus Accident in Westchester County?

Short answer: two parties, on two different clocks. Westchester County’s Department of Public Works and Transportation owns the Bee-Line system, but private companies run it. Liberty Lines Transit operates all fixed routes except 16, 18, and 31, which are run by P.T.L.A. Enterprise.

That means a claim against the County follows the 90-day notice rule, while a claim against the private operator generally follows the standard three-year window. Both may belong in the same case.

For scale, the Bee-Line runs 64 routes with 327 fixed-route buses and carried an average of 81,613 riders per day in 2024, with service reaching into Putnam County, the Bronx, Manhattan, and Greenwich, Connecticut.

Who Is Responsible for a School Bus Accident in NYC or Westchester?

In New York City, the buses are run by private companies, not the city. According to the New York City Comptroller’s December 17, 2025 report, Routing Our Children’s Futures, 48 vendors operate NYC school bus service under 99 contracts with the Department of Education, moving about 145,000 students a day at a cost of nearly $2 billion a year.

So a family may have a 90-day clock against the DOE and a three-year clock against the bus company at the same time. Sorting that out early is the difference between having two defendants and having none.

In Westchester, the same logic applies district by district. Some districts own and run their own buses. Others contract the work out.

One number that reframes everything

Federal crash data changes how most people picture these cases. NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis reports that between 2015 and 2024 there were 962 fatal school-bus-related crashes, killing 1,069 people, an average of 107 per year.

Of the 204 school-age children who died in those crashes:

• 78 were occupants of other vehicles
• 77 were pedestrians
• 39 were riding the school bus

Twice as many kids died in cars as on the bus. The pattern holds for public transit too. Federal Transit Administration data from the National Transit Database shows that bus-to-private-vehicle collisions between 2016 and 2023 accounted for 79% of all bus-related transit injuries.

If you were driving your own car when a bus hit you, you’re not an unusual case. You’re the typical one.

Get Your Timeline Checked Before Anything Else

You don’t need to know which entity owned the bus to make a phone call. We do that part. What we can’t do is undo a missed deadline, and the first one is shorter than most people expect.

Call 914-274-4812 for a free case review. We’ll tell you which clocks are running on your specific crash.

What Are the Three Deadlines After a New York Bus Accident?

Clock 1: 30 days to notify the no-fault insurer

Under New York’s no-fault regulations (11 NYCRR 65-1.1 and 65-2.4), written notice must reach the insurer no more than 30 days after the accident. The New York Department of Financial Services has confirmed that the count starts the day after the crash, not the day of it (DFS OGC Opinion 03-05-07).

Miss it without a clear and reasonable justification and the insurer can deny the whole claim, not just one bill. Separately, medical bills generally must be submitted within 45 days of the date each service was provided, which creates a rolling series of deadlines throughout treatment.

No-fault covers up to $50,000 in basic economic loss, including necessary medical expenses and a portion of lost earnings, under Insurance Law 5102(a).

Clock 2: 90 days to serve a notice of claim

General Municipal Law 50-e requires a written, sworn notice within 90 days after the claim arises. It has to state your name and address, the nature of the claim, the time, place, and manner it happened, and the damages you’re claiming.

This applies to NYCTA, MaBSTOA, the MTA parent entity, Westchester County, the NYC DOE, and school districts. It does not apply to MTA Bus Company or to private contractors.

We don’t recommend anyone attempt this document alone. It’s sworn, technically specific, and cases get thrown out over defects in it every year.

Clock 3: One year and 90 days to sue

GML 50-i covers municipalities, PAL 1212(2) covers NYCTA, and PAL 1276(2) covers the MTA. Filing the notice of claim does not extend this.

And then there’s the 50-h hearing

Under GML 50-h, the public agency can demand a sworn examination before you’re allowed to sue. It has to be completed first, and the transcript stays in the case permanently.

That matters more than it sounds. In Jimenez v NYCTA, 221 AD3d 674 (2d Dept 2023), the defense won summary judgment using the plaintiff’s own 50-h testimony together with the bus camera video.

Who Pays Your Medical Bills After a Bus Accident in New York?

Here’s what typically happens, and it catches almost everyone off guard: if you were riding the bus, your own household car insurance pays your no-fault benefits first.

Insurance Law 5103(a)(1) provides that for bus occupants, other than the operator, owner, or their employees, first-party benefits come from the policy covering the injured person and members of their household. Only if there’s no such policy does the bus’s insurer step in.

What this means in practice:

• A parent whose child is hurt on a school bus usually files that no-fault claim through the family’s own auto policy
• A bus passenger with no car in the household looks to the bus’s insurer
• A pedestrian struck by a bus is generally covered under the striking vehicle’s policy
• Either way, the 30-day written notice clock still applies

We mention this because we’ve seen families wait months for a school bus company’s insurer to call them, when the coverage they needed was sitting in their own glove box.

What Changed in New York Law on May 26, 2026?

This is recent enough that most published guidance hasn’t caught up. According to New York DFS Insurance Circular Letter No. 3 (2026), issued July 1, 2026, Part EE of Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026 took effect May 26, 2026 and applies to all actions commenced on or after that date.

Four changes matter here:

1. The 90/180 serious injury category is gone. Injured people can no longer meet the serious injury threshold by showing a non-permanent injury that kept them from usual activities for 90 of the first 180 days. The remaining categories are more objective: death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use, permanent consequential limitation of use, or significant limitation of use.
2. Trials now run in a set order. Insurance Law 5104(a) requires the trier of fact to decide fault first, then whether a serious injury exists.
3. A new $100,000 cap on non-economic damages applies in a narrow set of situations under new Insurance Law 5104(d), involving certain at-fault drivers. It does not apply in cases involving death.
4. New York moved to modified comparative negligence in motor vehicle cases. New CPLR 1411(b) bars recovery entirely if the claimant’s share of fault is greater than the combined fault of the parties they’re suing. That’s a real departure from New York’s older pure comparative fault approach.

Bus passenger injuries often fall into the softer-tissue range that the 90/180 route used to serve, so this shift has teeth. Whether and how these changes apply to any specific claim, including claims against self-insured public authorities, is a question for a lawyer to work through with you.

Does the MTA Owe Bus Passengers a Higher Duty of Care?

No, and a lot of what’s published online about this is out of date.

New York’s Court of Appeals ended the old “highest degree of care” rule for common carriers in Bethel v New York City Transit Authority, 92 NY2d 348 (1998). The Court held that a common carrier owes the same duty as any other party: reasonable care under all the circumstances of the case.

We point this out not to discourage anyone, but because it changes how a case has to be built. You can’t lean on a special standard that no longer exists. You build the case on facts, records, and video.

Why Do “The Bus Stopped Short” Cases Often Fail?

Because saying the stop was violent isn’t enough.

Under Urquhart v New York City Transit Authority, 85 NY2d 828 (1995), a passenger hurt by the movement of a bus has to show the jerk or lurch was unusual and violent, and of a different class than the jolts people commonly experience in city bus travel. Courts require objective evidence of the force involved.

Examples of how strictly this gets applied:

• In Stark v NYCTA (2d Dept 2022), a plaintiff’s verdict was set aside because she described the stop as violent but offered no objective support
• In Patterson v NYCTA (1st Dept 2017), the bus was moving 3 to 5 mph when the driver braked for a truck, and the claim was dismissed
• In Rayford v County of Westchester (2009), the same standard was applied to a Bee-Line case

Joo Yeon Park v NYCTA, 2024 NY Slip Op 05334 (2d Dept), confirms that on a summary judgment motion the carrier carries the burden of showing the movement was not unusual and violent.

The practical lesson: the bus’s own camera and data usually matter more than your description of what happened. Which brings us to the part of this that keeps us up at night.

Why the Evidence Disappears Before the Deadlines Do

Bus camera footage does not last long, and the agencies do not publish their retention schedules. Reported windows in practice run from roughly 30 to 90 days depending on the camera and the system. The only safe assumption is that footage could be gone within a month.

Once it’s overwritten, it’s gone. A preservation demand sent after the fact recovers nothing, no matter how strong the underlying case is.

For school bus cases, there’s a newer wrinkle that we think families deserve to know about. 

In its December 2025 audit, the New York City Comptroller’s office reported that during the 2024-25 school year there were 200,556 instances where school bus drivers did not log in to their GPS devices, and that vendors failed to meet the 90% login standard. The audit also found the DOE assessed damages in only 5.5% of those cases, leaving roughly $42.6 million in penalties uncollected for that one category of contract breach.

The Comptroller’s office described the DOE as not making use of readily available GPS technology, and found that neither the bus companies nor the DOE ensured devices were installed and working on every bus.

Why that matters to an injured family: GPS data is usually the best objective proof of speed, route, and timing in a school bus case. New York City’s own auditor has documented, on the record, that this data often isn’t being captured at all. You cannot assume the evidence exists. You have to go looking for it fast.

If you’re weighing whether to make a call this week or next month, that’s the reason to make it this week. Our bus accident attorney in Westchester page walks through the broader claim process, but the preservation work has to start immediately.

What If Your Child Was Hurt on a School Bus?

Does it hurt the case if your child wasn’t wearing a seat belt?

No. Education Law 3813(4) states that in a personal injury action by a school bus passenger, no school district, contracted bus operator, driver, matron, chaperone, teacher, or volunteer can be held liable solely because the injured passenger wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

The statute does preserve liability for failing to keep required equipment in working order and for failing to follow applicable rules and regulations. So the seat belt question is off the table as a defense on its own.

What if you already missed the 90 days?

Missing it is serious, but for a child it isn’t automatically the end.

The 90-day clock runs from the date of the accident no matter how old the child is. Being a minor doesn’t excuse it by itself. But in Cohen v Pearl River Union Free School District, 51 NY2d 256 (1980), the Court of Appeals held that the period during which a court may permit late service is tied to the limitations period, and is therefore extended by the infancy toll in CPLR 208. A court keeps the power to consider a late-notice application well past one year and 90 days.

The standard for winning that application comes from Matter of Newcomb v Middle Country Central School District, 28 NY3d 455 (2016). You carry an initial burden to show the delay won’t substantially prejudice the public entity, and that showing doesn’t have to be extensive. Then the burden shifts to the agency to come forward with specific evidence of prejudice. Vague claims that time has passed aren’t enough.

That framework is still doing real work. In Matter of Polito v North Babylon Sch. Dist., 2026 NY Slip Op 01067 (2d Dept, February 2026), the petitioner met her initial burden and the district failed to produce particularized evidence of prejudice.

One trap worth knowing about: in Henry v City of New York, 94 NY2d 275 (1999), the children’s own claims survived because of the infancy toll, but the parents’ derivative claims were dismissed. A parent who waits can lose their own claim for the child’s medical expenses even when the child’s case continues.

None of this is automatic. It’s discretionary, and it needs a lawyer’s eyes on it right away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue both the school district and the bus company? Often yes, and in New York City that’s usually the correct approach, since the district or DOE and the private vendor are separate defendants with separate deadlines. Pursuing only one can leave real coverage unclaimed. Which combination applies depends on who owned the bus and how the contract was written.

Where do I file a notice of claim against NYC Transit? The MTA’s own personal injury claim form directs claims involving NYCTA, MaBSTOA, and SIRTOA to be emailed to [email protected] within 90 days of the incident. Its Department of Law, Claims is at 130 Livingston Street, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. The form also states that an unresolved claim generally must go to court within one year and 90 days. We’d still recommend having counsel prepare and serve it, since defects in the document itself defeat claims regularly.

Does the 90/180 serious injury rule still exist in New York? No. Part EE of Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026 removed that category from Insurance Law 5102(d) for actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, per DFS Insurance Circular Letter No. 3 (2026).

What happens if I was partly at fault? Under new CPLR 1411(b), in motor vehicle cases subject to Insurance Law Article 51, your recovery is barred entirely if your share of fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone you’re suing. Below that line, damages are still reduced by your percentage. Fault allocation is heavily fact-driven, and early witness and video evidence often decides it.

A driver passed a stopped school bus and hit my child. Does the ticket help my case? It can. New York’s Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and DMV estimate roughly 50,000 vehicles illegally pass stopped school buses statewide every school day. Under VTL 1174, a first offense carries a fine of $250 to $400 and up to 30 days in jail. Since 2019, VTL 1174-a has allowed stop-arm camera programs, which produce a dated photographic record of the violation. That record exists separately from your injury claim, and it’s worth preserving.

How much is my case worth? We won’t put a number on that in an article, and we’d be cautious about any site that does. Value depends on the injuries, the medical proof, the fault split, and which defendants are actually in the case. Those aren’t knowable from a web page.

Talk to Us Before the First Clock Runs Out

The hardest part of these cases isn’t proving what happened. It’s the paperwork that has to be right before anyone ever looks at what happened.

Our firm has tried claims against NYC Transit, the MTA, and the New York City Board of Education, including a $16,500,000 result for an automobile passenger injured in a collision with a bus (Betancourt v NYCTA, Bronx Supreme Court). Over more than 35 years, the Law Offices of Norman Gershon has recovered more than $100 million for injured New Yorkers, and other attorneys regularly bring us their toughest cases to try.

If a school bus, an MTA bus, or a Bee-Line bus was involved in your crash anywhere in Westchester County or New York City, call us at 914-274-4812 for a free consultation. We have offices in North Salem and White Plains, and we handle intake in Spanish as well.

There’s no cost to find out which deadlines apply to you. There is a cost to finding out too late.

Sources referenced in this article: NY DFS Insurance Circular Letter No. 3 (2026) | NYC Comptroller, Routing Our Children’s Futures, December 17, 2025 | NHTSA National Center for Statistics and Analysis | Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database | NYS Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, Operation Safe Stop | New York General Municipal Law 50-e, 50-h, 50-i; Public Authorities Law 1212 and 1276; Education Law 3813; Insurance Law 5102, 5103, 5104; CPLR 208, 214, 1411; VTL 1174 and 1174-a; 11 NYCRR 65