How NY School Districts Can Be Liable for Off Premises Bus Accidents

In a tragic incident that occurred in October of last year in Florida, a 17 year-old high school student was seriously injured when a passing schoolbus while he was walking home from school. This accident turned into somewhat of a lightning rod for parents in the school district, because they have been complaiing for years that the route home is unsafe for students, because there is inadequate safety lighting, and this poor lighting was apparently a contributing factor to the accident.

But how would this incident play out under New York law?

In a similar case entitled, Ernest v. Red Creek Center School District, New York State's highest court held that where the school knows of a dangerous situation involving the buses - which in this case may have had to do (at least in part) with inadequate lighting -  "is evidence that the type of accident that occurred in this case was foreseeable." Thus, it is certainly conceivable that under New York law, the same result, i.e., dismissal of the defendant's motion for summary judgment, would lie.