Bus Passenger Claims and an Intoxicated Transit Driver

Attorney Answer

A drug test alone is not a separate lawsuit, but it can matter a great deal inside the injury claim you already have — and suing a city transit agency runs under special Texas rules that this page cannot resolve for you. Get to a Texas attorney quickly rather than waiting to see how the criminal side plays out.

Start with what your claim actually is. As a passenger, you have a negligence claim against whoever caused the crash. The other driver pulled in front of the bus; the bus driver's condition is a second question, not a replacement for the first. Texas assigns responsibility by percentage. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.003 has the trier of fact assign a percentage of responsibility to each claimant, each defendant, each settling person, and each designated responsible third party. Section 33.013(a) then makes each liable defendant responsible only for its own percentage — Texas is not a joint-and-several state by default. Under § 33.013(b) joint and several liability comes back only where a defendant's share is greater than 50 percent or where the defendant acted in concert with another to commit certain intentional Penal Code offenses. Section 33.001 bars recovery entirely by a claimant whose own percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent, which is not usually a concern for a seated bus passenger, and § 33.012(a) reduces damages by the claimant's percentage where it applies.

Now the drug test. Tex. Penal Code § 49.04(a) makes it an offense to be intoxicated while operating a motor vehicle in a public place. "Intoxicated" is defined in § 49.01(2): not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol, a controlled substance, a drug, a dangerous drug, a combination of those, or any other substance into the body, or having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. That matters in two ways. First, a positive test is not automatically the same as intoxication under the definition — for a controlled substance the question is loss of the normal use of faculties, which a test result supports but does not settle. Second, when it is established, it is strong evidence about how the driver was driving, and it can support a claim that the agency should not have had him behind the wheel. It is a route to more responsibility on that side of the case, not a claim that stands on its own.

The complication is the defendant. Claims against a city or a public transit authority in Texas are governed by a separate statute with its own requirements and its own limits on what can be recovered, and it is unforgiving of delay. No deadline under it should be guessed at from a general source. It is the single most important reason to see a lawyer soon.

What you can do

1. Get medical care and stay with it. Gaps in treatment are read as gaps in injury, and your records are the backbone of the claim.

2. Request your own medical and ambulance records. They are yours and the request is free or cheap.

3. Keep what already exists: your bus fare record or pass, photographs already on your phone, the names of other passengers if you already have them, and any correspondence you have received.

4. Do not contact the bus driver, and do not give a recorded statement to the transit agency, its claims office, or the other driver's insurer.

5. Take the case to a Texas personal injury attorney now and tell them at the first call that a governmental transit agency is involved. Ask that lawyer, not this page, about the notice and filing requirements that apply to a city or transit authority.

*Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — starting with which entity actually operates the bus — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.*

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) generally gives two years from the day the claim accrues for personal injury. Claims against a governmental unit carry additional and much shorter requirements that this page does not state. When your clock started, and what else applies because a public agency is involved, depends on your facts — have a Texas attorney review the dates immediately.