Massachusetts Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation Law Blog
People each and every day in Massachusetts sustain personal injuries on public transportation. Especially in Boston, with the high volume of taxi cabs, buses and trains, many people are injured on these modes of transport. But, these riders usually have a slightly easier time recovering compensation for their injuries sustained on public transportation.
The reason is that in Massachusetts, taxi cab, bus, and train operators have the legal status of "common carriers." The law requires them to be more careful than say Joe Public who drives his own car each and every day. The reason for this different legal classification is that if a common carrier gets into an accident, there may be many people that could be injured. Common carriers are treated different, legally, because we, as a society need these operators to be careful because if they cause an accident, hundreds of people could be injured. The stakes are just too high, that is why they are held to a higher duty of care.
I invite you to contact me if you have been injured while riding public transportation in Massachusetts.