Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC, working with co-counsel as part of the legal team representing a teenage girl who suffered devastating permanent injuries after being run over by a school bus at Bartlett High School, has helped secure a $50 million settlement on her behalf.
The settlement arose from an October 18, 2024 accident involving a young woman, who was 14 years old at the time. She suffered catastrophic injuries when she fell beside a moving school bus in the high school's afternoon pickup area and was run over by its right rear tire.
School District U-46's Board of Education approved the $50 million settlement in September 2026. The resolution will help provide for the extensive medical treatment, personal assistance, mobility needs, rehabilitation, supplies, and other care she is expected to require throughout her lifetime.
The case also illustrates why school bus accidents involving children can require investigation of much more than the conduct of the person behind the wheel. Loading areas, student supervision, established safety procedures, driver training, the behavior of children around buses, and the actions of school personnel can all become important issues.
If your child has suffered a serious or permanent injury involving a school bus, Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC can investigate what happened and explain your family's legal options. Call (312) 243-9922 for a free and confidential consultation. There is never an attorney fee unless compensation is successfully recovered.
A Busy School Bus Pickup Area After Classes
At the end of the school day, students at Bartlett High School typically gathered in a designated area while waiting for buses to arrive in waves.
School transportation procedures called for students to remain on the sidewalk, outside the roadway and away from the path of approaching buses.
According to the allegations made on our client's behalf, however, what occurred in practice was different.
The lawsuit alleged that students regularly entered the parking lane while buses were arriving and that some students would run alongside approaching buses in an effort to reach the boarding area quickly and secure a seat.
This also was not an isolated occurrence. According to the claims asserted in the lawsuit, personnel supervising the pickup area knew or should have known that students were entering dangerously close proximity to moving school buses.
At least three supervisors were present in the parking lot on the afternoon of the accident. Nevertheless, students were permitted to enter and remain in the bus lane while vehicles were moving into the pickup area, according to the lawsuit.
Our Client Fell Beside the Moving Bus
The vehicle involved was an IC school bus owned by School District U-46 and operated that afternoon by Mitchell McCutchen.
As the bus slowly entered the pickup zone and moved toward the right parking lane, a number of students began moving alongside the right side of the vehicle. Our young client was among them.
Students were within approximately 10 feet of the moving bus as they attempted to keep pace with it and during those moments, she apparently collided with one or more other students and fell to the pavement. The right rear tire of the school bus then passed over her body.
A child outside a school bus has virtually none of the physical protection available to someone riding inside a vehicle. These circumstances can therefore involve many of the same dangers found in serious pedestrian accidents, compounded by the extraordinary size and weight of a school bus.
The School Bus Danger Zone
The areas immediately around a school bus require particular attention because children may be walking, running, standing near the vehicle, crossing in front of it, or moving through locations that can be difficult for the driver to continuously observe.
The Illinois Professional School Bus Driver Training Curriculum instructs drivers to approach waiting students with extreme care and continually check their mirrors. The curriculum states that waiting students should be at least five feet back from the curb or edge of the roadway and at least five feet in front of the bus. It also instructs drivers not to allow students to move toward the bus until the bus has come to a complete stop and the service door has been opened.
Those safety principles are particularly significant because children cannot always be expected to behave like cautious adults. Students may become distracted, run toward friends, compete to board first, change direction unexpectedly, drop belongings, or move into an area that a driver cannot easily see.
Preventing injuries in the danger zone surrounding a school bus therefore depends not only upon telling children what they should do, but also upon drivers and supervising adults anticipating foreseeable childhood behavior and enforcing safe loading and unloading procedures.
Catastrophic Injuries and More Than 40 Surgical Procedures
Our client suffered crushing trauma to her pelvis along with extensive damage to the tissues, muscles, blood vessels, and gastrointestinal structures in the lower portion of her body.
One of her injuries was a rectal avulsion, a rare and extremely serious traumatic injury involving displacement and separation of rectal and surrounding structures.
Her gastrointestinal tract was severely damaged by the impact, and she will require a colostomy for the remainder of her life.
She also went into cardiac arrest following the accident before emergency personnel were able to stabilize her.
She additionally sustained a Morel-Lavallée lesion, sometimes referred to as an internal degloving injury. This type of traumatic injury occurs when tremendous force separates layers of tissue beneath the skin, potentially disrupting blood vessels and damaging the tissue's blood supply.
In her case, the vascular supply to the gluteal region was severely damaged. Tissue began dying, requiring repeated surgical removal of damaged and nonviable tissue.
She ultimately underwent approximately 42 debridement procedures and was left without functional gluteal muscles.
The devastating gastrointestinal and vascular damage demonstrates how crushing trauma can cause severe internal injuries that may require repeated surgeries and lifelong medical management.
Although she can take some steps with the assistance of a walker, she cannot walk independently. She primarily uses a wheelchair and is expected to require 24-hour care for the remainder of her life.
These are the types of permanent disabilities that make catastrophic injury cases fundamentally different from claims involving injuries that eventually heal. Future medical care, personal assistance, equipment, disability, loss of independence, and the effect of the injury over an entire lifetime must all be considered.
Permanent Injuries to a 14-Year-Old Require Looking Decades Into the Future
Because she was only 14 when she was injured, calculating the full consequences of the accident could not be limited to hospital bills and expenses already incurred.
When children suffer serious and permanent injuries, future damages may need to account for many decades of medical treatment and assistance.
Depending upon the injured person's individual circumstances, those future needs can include:
- Additional surgeries and medical treatment
- Physician and specialist care
- Physical and occupational therapy
- Wheelchairs and other mobility equipment
- Replacement of medical and mobility equipment over time
- Home modifications
- Accessible transportation
- Medications and medical supplies
- Ostomy supplies and continuing gastrointestinal care
- In-home nursing and attendant care
- Rehabilitation
- Psychological care
- and compensation for lost future earning capacity, disability and disfigurement, pain and suffering, and loss of a normal life
For someone expected to require around-the-clock assistance for decades, the future cost of care can be enormous. Catastrophic injury litigation may therefore involve physicians, rehabilitation professionals, life-care planners, economists, vocational experts, and other specialists who can help evaluate what an injured person will realistically require throughout life.
Claims Against Both the Driver and School District U-46
In conjuction with our offices, her father filed the lawsuit on her behalf in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
The school bus driver and School District U-46 were both named as defendants, although different legal claims were asserted against them.
The complaint alleged ordinary negligence against the driver. Among other claims, it alleged that he failed to exercise appropriate care when approaching an area where students were congregating near the moving bus and failed to adequately address the danger presented by students approaching or running alongside the vehicle before it stopped.
The lawsuit also alleged willful and wanton misconduct against School District U-46.
Among the allegations asserted against the district were that it failed to adequately instruct, observe, supervise, and discipline students concerning safe distances from moving school buses and permitted an unsafe pattern of conduct to continue in the pickup area.
Serious injury cases frequently require attorneys to determine whether multiple defendants may share responsibility for a single injury. That earlier discussion on our website also arose from a school-bus-related incident and explains why an investigation may extend beyond the person who was directly operating the vehicle.
Because our client's case was resolved through settlement rather than a jury verdict, the allegations were not decided at trial and the settlement should not be interpreted as a judicial finding that the defendants committed the conduct alleged.
Another Recent Illinois School Bus Tragedy
This settlement comes shortly after another Illinois school bus incident brought renewed attention to the dangers children can face immediately outside these vehicles.
In September 2026, six-year-old Jenna Menias died following an accident involving the school bus that had transported her home in Frankfort, Illinois.
Our discussion of that fatal Frankfort school bus accident examined many of the questions that should be investigated when a child is struck near a bus, including the child's location, the driver's visibility, mirror positioning, driver training, stop procedures, surveillance video, GPS information, electronic vehicle data, and witness accounts.
The factual circumstances of the Frankfort tragedy and our client's case are different. But both illustrate an important school transportation safety issue: some of the most serious bus-related injuries occur while a child is outside the vehicle during loading, unloading, pickup, or drop-off.
Video and Electronic Evidence Can Be Critical
Modern school buses and school properties may produce valuable evidence that was unavailable in transportation cases years ago.
Depending upon the bus, school, and surrounding area, evidence may include:
- Interior school bus cameras
- Forward-facing and exterior cameras
- Stop-arm cameras
- School surveillance video
- GPS and route-tracking information
- Electronic vehicle information
- Dispatch communications
- Nearby security cameras
- Doorbell cameras
- Dash-camera recordings
- Transportation records
- Driver training and personnel records
Video can sometimes establish the position of a child, the path of a moving bus, the actions of supervisors, the driver's conduct, and the sequence of events far more accurately than human recollection alone.
This type of evidence should be identified and preserved promptly because some electronic systems eventually overwrite older recordings.
Claims involving school buses may also present additional issues when a school district or other governmental entity is involved. Our attorneys' experience with bus and transportation injury claims includes evaluating potential defendants, applicable legal protections, filing deadlines, and the records necessary to determine how an accident occurred.
Case Was Scheduled for Trial Before the Parties Reached an Agreement
Our case had been scheduled for trial in Cook County Circuit Court on September 3, 2026.
Before trial, the parties participated in mediation with retired Judge Edward S. Harmening of ADR Systems and reached a settlement agreement.
The School District U-46 Board of Education subsequently approved the $50 million resolution.
For a catastrophically injured teenager, reaching an appropriate settlement requires looking beyond the cost of past medical treatment. The legal team must also evaluate the financial consequences of a disability that may require extensive medical care and personal assistance for the remainder of the client's life.
A Significant Recovery for a Young Client With Lifelong Needs
Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC, working with co-counsel, is proud to have been part of the legal team that helped secure this $50 million settlement for our client and her family.
The result joins other significant verdicts and settlements obtained for clients represented by Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC and affiliated counsel.
No financial recovery can undo what happened or restore her life to what it was before October 18, 2024. A substantial settlement can, however, provide resources for the medical treatment, personal assistance, rehabilitation, equipment, supplies, and other needs created by a permanent disability.
It can also provide financial protection for needs that may continue long after the legal case itself has ended.
Contact Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC After a Serious School Bus Accident
A serious school bus injury may involve questions concerning driver conduct, student supervision, loading and unloading procedures, school district responsibility, governmental immunity, transportation regulations, electronic evidence, and multiple potential defendants.
When a child suffers catastrophic injuries, investigating those issues promptly can be especially important.
If your child has been seriously injured while riding a school bus, approaching or leaving a bus, running or walking near a bus, or waiting in a school transportation area, contact Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC at (312) 243-9922 for a free and confidential consultation. Our legal team represents injured children and families throughout Chicago and Illinois, and there is never an attorney fee unless compensation is successfully recovered.
