Founding Partner
Yes. A passenger who falls on a Maryland bus, light rail car, or train can file a personal injury claim when the carrier’s negligence caused the fall. That covers a violent stop, a wet stairwell, or a handrail loose for weeks. What separates these cases from a collision is proof. No vehicle is damaged, no crash report is written, and the video that shows what happened sits on a short retention cycle. Our Maryland bus accident attorneys at McGowan & Cecil, LLC help injured riders move before that evidence is gone.
Why Falling Is Harder to Prove Than Crashing
Maryland treats buses, light rail, subway, and passenger trains as common carriers, and a common carrier owes passengers the highest degree of care for their safety. That duty is stricter than the ordinary care one driver owes another, but not a guarantee. Maryland law is equally clear that a carrier is not an insurer of passenger safety, so the fact that you fell does not establish a claim.
When two vehicles collide, the damage and the police report tell much of the story. When a rider goes down inside a bus, there is often no report, no photograph, and no witness who stayed. You have to show what the operator did wrong.
Where You Fell Decides Which Rules Apply
Transit falls are usually divided into two categories, proven differently. A fall on a moving vehicle is generally a negligent operation case, built on how the driver braked, accelerated, or pulled from the curb. A fall in a station, on a stairway, or at a stop is closer to a premises liability case, built on a dangerous condition and on whether the operator knew or should have known about it, though the carrier’s heightened duty to passengers can still apply depending on where the fall happened and whether you were still in the carrier’s care. The same analysis governs a fall at a Maryland train or light rail platform.
The conditions that most often put riders on the floor include the following:
- A stop or acceleration violent enough to throw a standing passenger
- Water, ice, or spilled liquid tracked onto a floor or stairwell and left there
- Worn, uneven, or damaged steps at a doorway or on a station stairway
- A handrail, stanchion, or grab bar that is broken, loose, or missing
- Burned-out lighting that hides a step or the gap at a platform edge
Each points toward a different record. A violent stop points toward vehicle data, a wet floor toward cleaning logs, and a broken rail toward maintenance history and how long the defect sat unrepaired.
Who Operates the Vehicle Changes Your Deadline
One of the costliest assumptions in a transit fall case is that you have three years to pursue a claim. Instead, you may only have one.
If the Maryland Transit Administration runs the bus, light rail line, Baltimore Metro SubwayLink, or MARC train, a separate statute controls. Under the statute governing tort claims against the transit administration, you cannot bring an action unless three things happen:
- You submit a written notice of claim to the Administrator or a designee within one year of the injury;
- The claim is denied; and,
- The action is filed within three years after the cause of action arises.
The notice has to set out the facts, including the date and place, give your name and address, and be signed by you, your representative, or your lawyer. Silence counts. If the agency does not answer within six months of your notice, the claim is treated as denied.
Washington-area Metro is run by WMATA, a separate authority with different rules, so confirm the operator before relying on any deadline here. County and municipal systems also follow a different law.
The notice rules for suits against local governments call for written notice within one year. The notice must state the time, place, and cause of the injury and be delivered in person or by certified mail, return receipt requested, with a United States Postal Service postmark. The recipient is not the same everywhere. In Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Frederick, Harford, and Prince George’s counties, it is the county solicitor or county attorney. In Montgomery County and Howard County it is the County Executive. In Baltimore City it is the City Solicitor. Anywhere else, notice goes to the county commissioners or county council, or to the corporate authorities of another local government. Clearing the notice hurdle does not guarantee the case proceeds. Separate immunity rules can also apply to a claim against a county or city, which is another reason to involve a lawyer early
Private shuttles, charter buses, and intercity carriers carry no government notice requirement, and the ordinary three-year deadline applies.
A missed notice is serious, but not always the end. Both statutes allow a court to hear the case anyway when the government cannot affirmatively show that the missing notice prejudiced its defense, and the local government version also requires a motion and good cause. Separately, and only against a local government, the notice requirement drops out entirely when that local government already had actual or constructive notice of the injury, or of the condition that caused it, within the year. No matching exception exists for claims against the transit administration.
Evidence Disappears on a Schedule
Onboard and station video is the center of most fall cases and the first thing to go. Agencies record over footage on a set retention cycle, sometimes within days, and once a file is overwritten, no subpoena brings it back. A preservation demand sent early is often the difference between a provable claim and your word against the agency’s.
Beyond video, the records that decide these cases include:
- The incident or unusual occurrence report the operator completed
- Cleaning, inspection, and maintenance logs for the vehicle or the station
- Repair history for the specific handrail, step, door, or light involved
- Photographs of the condition, taken before it is cleaned up or fixed
- Medical records that tie the injury to the date of the fall
Nearly all of that sits with the agency, not with you, which is why a claim built in the first week looks different from one built in the sixth month.
Being Slightly at Fault Can End a Strong Case
Maryland is one of the few states that still applies contributory negligence, and its highest court reaffirmed the rule in 2013. A passenger who fails to exercise ordinary care and contributes to the injury is barred from all recovery, however negligent the carrier was. A narrow doctrine called last clear chance can still permit full recovery, but only when something new or sequential hands the carrier a fresh opportunity to avert the harm after the rider’s carelessness is in motion. Where the two acts of negligence run together, it does not apply.
Transit insurers know this and aim at it. Expect the claim that you were standing while seats were open, that you were not holding a rail, or that you were looking at a phone. None decides a case by itself, but the answers live in the records that vanish first, which is why a transit slip and fall claim deserves the urgency people reserve for a collision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have a claim if the bus never crashed?
Often, yes. A collision is one way a carrier breaches the high duty it owes passengers, not the only way. A stop severe enough to throw a standing rider, a wet stairwell, or a grab bar that stayed broken can each support a claim.
How long do I have to act after falling on an MTA bus or train?
Written notice goes to the transit administration’s Administrator or a designee within one year of the injury, and suit must be filed within three years. The notice deadline lands first, well before most people finish treatment, so it is the date to protect.
The bus stopped short and I was standing. Is that my fault?
Not automatically. Riders stand on crowded buses, and standing is not by itself a failure of ordinary care. It is the argument the carrier will make, so how the stop happened matters. Vehicle data, video, and other riders can show whether it was routine.
Talk to a Maryland Transit Fall Lawyer
If you were hurt in a fall on a bus, train, light rail car, or platform, the clock on the evidence is shorter than the clock on your claim. McGowan & Cecil, LLC has represented injured Marylanders from our Laurel office since 2001, with more than 120 years of combined experience. Contact McGowan & Cecil, LLC today for a free consultation. We handle injury cases on a contingency fee, so there is no attorney fee unless we win your case.