Who Is Liable for a School Bus Accident in Kentucky?

Responsibility for a school bus accident in Kentucky can rest with the school board, the bus driver, a private bus company, or a driver who passed the stopped bus. Each one answers in a different forum, under different damage limits and filing deadlines. Kentucky’s school bus stop law also changed on July 15, 2026, and the change decides who is at fault when a car passes a loading bus.

Kentucky School Bus Stop Law

Drivers in Kentucky must stop for a school bus that has its stop arm out and its signal lights on while it loads or unloads passengers. Under KRS 189.370, the duty applies to traffic approaching from any direction, and the driver stays stopped until the bus finishes and moves again. It covers buses that carry the markings and equipment set by Kentucky’s minimum school bus specifications.

When a witness sees a vehicle pass the bus but no one identifies the driver, the same statute presumes that the person the vehicle is registered or leased to was driving. That presumption applies to the criminal penalty. In an injury case, the registration still identifies the owner of the vehicle and the policy that insures it.

Divided Highway Exception

House Bill 7, in effect since July 15, 2026, narrowed the one exception to the stop rule. Oncoming drivers may pass a stopped bus only on a highway of four or more lanes divided by an elevated barrier or an unpaved median. The statute names no other divider, so a painted turn lane or a striped center line does not qualify.

Penalties for Passing a Stopped Bus

KRS 189.990(5) sets the criminal penalties. A first offense carries a fine of $200 to $500, 30 to 60 days in jail, or both. A second offense within 3 years carries a fine of $300 to $1,000, 60 days to 6 months in jail, or both. A court cannot suspend the minimum fine, and the driver’s record takes at least 6 points.

Stop-Arm Camera Tickets

House Bill 7 also lets each school district decide whether to mount stop-arm cameras on its buses under KRS 158.485. A district may hire a private vendor to run the system, and enforcement runs through a law enforcement agency, a certified peace officer, or a school resource officer.

A camera violation is a civil penalty against the vehicle’s owner. It costs $300 for the first and $500 for each later one within 3 years, with no points on the owner’s or driver’s record. The notice goes to the owner by first-class mail within 30 days of the violation. An owner who neither pays nor contests the penalty within 60 days can lose the vehicle’s registration under KRS 158.490.

Liable Parties in a School Bus Accident

Liability depends on who owned and ran the bus and who caused the accident. A case against a public school board follows state immunity rules. A case against the bus driver, a private bus company, or another motorist follows ordinary negligence law. TARC and charter bus cases also bring in the common carrier standard for Kentucky bus accident cases.

School Board Immunity

A local board of education is a state agency, and Kentucky gives it governmental immunity from negligence suits over its governmental functions. In Letcher County Board of Education v. Tackett, the Kentucky Court of Appeals treated transporting students by bus as one of those functions.

Buying insurance does not change that. In Grayson County Board of Education v. Casey, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that a board’s purchase of liability insurance under KRS 160.310 does not waive its immunity from suit. The Court overruled the earlier Kirby decision to the extent it had found a waiver.

Board of Claims Cases

A family can still bring a negligence case against the school board, but it goes to the Kentucky Board of Claims instead of circuit court. In Williams v. Kentucky Department of Education, the Kentucky Supreme Court treated a local board as a state agency and allowed a case over its employees’ negligent ministerial acts to proceed before the Board.

The Board works under tighter limits than a court. A single award cannot exceed $250,000, and the total for one act of negligence that injures more than one person cannot exceed $400,000. Under KRS 49.020(5), the Board cannot award damages for pain and suffering or mental distress.

Bus Driver Liability

The bus driver stands apart from the board. A public employee has no immunity for the negligent performance of a ministerial act, the test set in Yanero v. Davis. In a 2011 unpublished opinion, the Tackett court held that operating a school bus is a ministerial act. A driver who operates a bus carelessly can be sued personally in circuit court.

Casey noted that a board’s liability policy may cover an employee sued for a negligent ministerial act.

Private Bus Companies

A district may contract with a private company to carry students. KRS 160.310 requires that contract to make the company carry liability insurance in an amount the board sets, from an insurer authorized to do business in Kentucky. A private company is not a state agency, so a case against the company and its driver proceeds in circuit court under ordinary negligence rules.

Drivers Who Pass a Stopped Bus

A motorist who passes a stopped bus and hits a child, or who causes an accident with a bus, answers under ordinary negligence law and that driver’s auto insurance. Under KRS 446.070, a person injured by the violation of a statute may recover damages from the violator, so a breach of the stop rule supports the injury case directly. When the accident takes a child’s life, the family’s case becomes a wrongful death case.

Insurance Required on Kentucky School Buses

Kentucky requires every district that runs its own buses to insure them. Under 702 KAR 5:030, the policy must carry at least $2,000,000 per occurrence in combined bodily injury and property damage coverage, or a $250,000/$2,000,000 split limit. It must also carry $500,000 in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and $20,000 in no-fault coverage per passenger.

The no-fault coverage pays an injured passenger’s personal injury protection benefits without anyone proving who caused the accident. The liability limits apply when the driver or the district is found responsible.

District Bus Safety Rules

The same regulation makes the superintendent responsible for the district’s pupil transportation program. A state-approved inspector must check every bus at least once each month that schools are in session, and a bus that fails stays off the road until it is repaired. The superintendent reports all school bus accidents to the Kentucky Department of Education each year, and an accident that seriously injures or kills a student is reported immediately.

Under 702 KAR 5:080, the driver must wear a seat belt at all times the bus is operated. In an injury case, the inspection records and the district’s accident report show the condition of the bus and the district’s account of what happened.

Seat Belts on School Buses

Small school buses, with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less, must have lap or lap/shoulder belts at every designated seat. Large school buses rely on compartmentalization, a federal design approach that protects children inside the bus without belts.

Kentucky’s 2026 minimum bus specifications list lap and shoulder belts for large buses as optional equipment. Whether a particular bus has them is a district purchasing decision.

School Transportation Safety Data

Less than 1% of traffic fatalities involve children on school transportation vehicles. From 2015 through 2024, 119 occupants of school transportation vehicles were killed nationwide, 49 drivers and 70 passengers.

Drivers illegally pass stopped school buses about 213,800 times a day nationwide, a projection from the 2025–2026 school year count by school bus drivers.

Filing Deadlines for School Bus Cases

The deadline depends on where the case is filed. Under KRS 49.120, a Board of Claims case against a school board must be filed within 1 year after it accrues. A personal injury accrues when the injury is discovered or reasonably should have been, and no case may start more than 2 years after the negligent act.

That deadline does not pause for a child. A guardian, next friend, or other qualified representative must file for an injured child within the same 1-year period, or the case is barred.

A case against the bus driver, a private bus company, or another motorist follows the motor vehicle deadline in KRS 304.39-230(6). It must be filed within 2 years after the injury or death, or within 2 years after the last no-fault payment, whichever is later.