Private companies, daycare centers or churches that put passenger buses on the road have a responsibility to exercise reasonable care for the safety of bus passengers. That rule not only applies to bus drivers, but also the duty of bus owners to maintain the bus in an appropriate condition.
As you would expect, passenger buses need regular maintenance to be safe. Belts need to be tightened or replaced, bus tires need to be inspected, rotated and/or replaced, and brakes need to be maintained. The failure to do so can result in the failure of an essential component of the bus system, and result in a bus accident that in turn causes injury or death to bus passengers or other people. In addition, bus drivers must be trained to not only do the inspection of the buses but also be prepared to handle mechanical failures of the component parts of the bus system. A multitude of federal regulations apply to protect bus passengers from the errors of bus owners or bus drivers.
Tennessee law provides compensatory damages and, in limited cases, punitive damages to those harmed by a failure of the owner of a passenger bus to property maintain the vehicle. Tennessee law has a very strict deadline for taking legal action – the injured person (or the representatives of a deceased person) must file suit within one year of the date of the incident causing the initial injury or death or the injured or deceased persons rights will be lost forever.