Megabus & Intercity Bus Accident Claims in Texas

You boarded a budget coach in downtown Dallas, heading south on I-35 to save money on a trip you needed to take. Somewhere past the city, the bus slammed into stopped traffic, and now you are facing medical bills you never planned for. You are wondering whether you can even take on a company this large, and whether it is worth trying.

Private Carriers Owe You the Highest Duty of Care

A private intercity bus company owes you the highest degree of care the law allows, far more than an ordinary driver owes. Companies like Megabus, which operated as a Coach USA brand, are for-hire commercial carriers, not government agencies. That means none of the notice deadlines or damage caps that protect public transit apply to your claim against them.

This is a real advantage for you. When you sue a city or county transit system, you face short notice windows and strict limits on what compensation you can recover. A private carrier gives you the full reach of Texas civil law instead.

Texas law treats these companies as common carriers. They must use the highest degree of care to protect passengers from harm they could foresee. That standard covers how they maintain their buses, who they hire to drive, how they supervise those drivers, and how they run their routes.

Intercity carriers cross state lines under federal authority. Even so, Texas civil law governs your right to damages and who is liable, while federal safety rules can separately help prove the company was negligent.

FMCSA Rules & Your Injury Claim

Federal safety rules can do a lot of the heavy lifting in your claim. Any intercity carrier running large coaches in interstate commerce, including double-decker buses designed to transport 16 or more passengers including the driver, must register with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and follow its rules.

Those rules cover how long a driver can stay behind the wheel, who qualifies to drive, and how the bus must be maintained.

You can see the agency’s own summary of these requirements through the FMCSA passenger carrier safety rules.

Federal regulations under 49 C.F.R. Part 390 set the safety standards for commercial passenger buses on interstate routes. If the carrier broke one of these rules, that violation can support a negligence per se claim. In plain terms, the broken rule can prove the company failed its duty without a fight over what a careful carrier should have done.

There is another reason these federal rules help you. Carriers running large coaches must keep at least $5 million in coverage under 49 C.F.R. Part 387. That is far more than a typical driver carries, which means the company that injured you can actually pay a fair recovery.

A serious injury can quickly outgrow what a smaller policy would cover, so it helps to understand how bus accident settlement value is calculated before you talk numbers with anyone.

Who Is Liable in an Intercity Bus Crash?

More than one party may owe you money after an intercity bus crash. The driver is the most direct one when their error caused the wreck. Because these drivers work for the carrier, the company is also on the hook for what its driver did on the job, a rule the law calls vicarious liability.

The carrier can be liable on its own, too. If it put an unqualified driver behind the wheel, or ignored warning signs in that driver’s federal safety record, you may have a claim for negligent hiring or supervision.

Other parties can be pulled in as well. A maintenance contractor that did shoddy work, a manufacturer that built a defective part, or another driver who helped cause a multi-vehicle pileup can all be named. Texas sorts out fault among everyone involved under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code (CPRC) Chapter 33, which divides responsibility by percentage.

Finding the right company to sue can get complicated. Coach USA, the parent behind the Megabus brand, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2024 and completed its sale to affiliates of The Renco Group on October 31, 2024. Megabus also ended its Texas routes in August 2024.

If your crash happened before that, your claim may still involve Coach USA as a bankrupt entity. Identifying the correct defendant takes a careful look at the corporate history and the bankruptcy record. The same care that goes into large commercial vehicle and truck accident claims applies here.

Filing an Intercity Bus Lawsuit in Texas

You have two years from the date of your injury to file a personal injury claim against a private carrier. That deadline comes from Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code (CPRC) § 16.003. Unlike a claim against public transit, there is no short notice period to beat first, and the clock usually starts the day you are hurt.

Here is what the path to a claim generally looks like:

Step 1: Confirm your filing deadline. Two years is the rule under § 16.003, but the date your clock started can depend on your specific injury, so pin it down early.

Step 2: Decide where the case belongs. Because Megabus and its parent companies are incorporated outside Texas, your case may belong in federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 1332 if your damages exceed $75,000. Your attorney will weigh local rules, the likely jury, and the facts of your case before choosing.

Step 3: Lock down the evidence fast. Federal inspection records, driver logbooks, maintenance logs, dashcam footage, and the bus’s electronic control module data can all prove what happened. An attorney can move to preserve these through litigation holds before the company deletes them.

If a crash takes a life, surviving family members can bring a wrongful death claim under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 71. These claims carry the same two-year deadline and face none of the government limits that reduce compensation against public transit.

Talk to an Experienced Attorney About Your Accident

Taking on a national bus company while you are hurt and worried about money feels like an uneven fight. It does not have to be. Angel Reyes & Associates has spent over 30 years helping injured Texans hold large carriers accountable, including in commercial vehicle and bus crash cases.

We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay no attorney fee unless we win, and your first consultation is always free. We serve clients across Texas, offer service in Spanish, and have more than $1 billion recovered for clients.

You can review what past clients say about working with us, meet the team that would handle your case, or find one of our offices across Texas.

When you are ready, schedule a free consultation and we will review your options together.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.