Georgetown roads carry school buses, tour coaches, and shuttles. When one crashes, riders and nearby drivers can suffer serious injuries.
South Carolina holds bus operators to a higher standard than ordinary drivers. A common carrier owes its passengers the highest degree of care, though it is not an insurer of their safety. In a county whose passengers are frequently older, most of these claims involve no collision at all: a step, a handrail, a driver moving before someone was seated.
At The Arndt Law Firm, we know how complicated Georgetown County carrier claims can be; our firm helps victims pursue compensation available to them under South Carolina law. Call us at (843) 310-4645 to discuss your case.
South Carolina defines the term rather than leaving it to impression. Under S.C. Code § 56-5-180, every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than ten passengers and used for the transportation of persons is a bus, and so is every motor vehicle other than a taxicab designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation.
A vehicle carrying fewer than ten passengers can still be a bus where it is designed and used to transport people for compensation, which brings shuttles, vans, tour vehicles, and contracted transport into the definition.
The classification identifies the vehicle. What determines the case is who operated it, and there are three possible answers: a public body, a private company, or a private company performing a public function under contract.
It can be. S.C. Code § 56-5-180 defines a bus as a vehicle designed for more than ten passengers, or any vehicle other than a taxicab designed and used to transport persons for compensation, which includes shuttles and tour vehicles.
South Carolina applies a heightened standard, and it is worth stating precisely because states differ. South Carolina appellate courts have held that a common carrier has a duty to exercise the highest degree of care toward its passengers, though it is not an insurer of their safety.
The standard has a stated limit. A carrier owes passengers the highest degree of care, but is not an insurer of their safety under all circumstances. A passenger injured on a bus still has to prove that something the carrier did or failed to do caused the injury.
The passenger relationship ordinarily ends when a rider steps off into a reasonably safe place (Flynn v. Carolina Scenic Stages, 1960). Even then, the operator must still use ordinary care not to put the rider in danger, for example, by pulling away in a way that blocks the rider's view of traffic.
Not every state applies that standard, and at least one high court abandoned it in favor of ordinary reasonable care. A summary written about most states is not a statement about South Carolina, and the South Carolina bus accident analysis works from South Carolina decisions.
Georgetown County's traffic data show that the 25-34 and 65-74 age groups are involved in collisions more than any other.
The heightened carrier duty is measured by the circumstances, including who the passenger is. A carrier that knows its passengers include people using walking aids, boarding slowly, or needing time to reach a seat is exercising the highest degree of care by reference to those passengers rather than to a hypothetical fit adult.
That has practical consequences. Moving off before an older passenger is seated, a step height that is manageable for some passengers and not others, a handrail that does not extend far enough, and a discharge point requiring a step down onto uneven ground are all assessed against what the operator knew about who it carried.
The injury consequences differ too. An older passenger thrown by sudden braking or falling while boarding sustains fractures, whereas a younger one sustains bruising. A hip fracture in older victims carries a documented risk of lasting loss of independence.
An insurer will raise pre-existing degenerative changes and unsteadiness. South Carolina asks whether the incident caused the harm, and a defendant takes the injured person as found.
The duty is the highest degree of care measured by the circumstances. What counts as reasonable care can depend on what the driver could see, such as a rider using a cane or still moving to a seat.
A significant share of carrier claims involves no crash. Sudden braking throws a standing passenger, a step or handrail fails, or a passenger falls while boarding or alighting.
Others follow the same pattern. A closing door catches someone, a wheelchair securement gives way, luggage falls from an overhead rack, or a passenger is discharged into a place that is not reasonably safe.
These turn on the carrier duty rather than on a traffic fault, which changes what has to be proved. The question is not who had the right of way but whether the operator exercised the highest degree of care in the circumstances, and the evidence is maintenance records, inspection history, prior complaints, and the operator's own written procedures.
Boarding and alighting is the largest group and the most heavily proceduralized. Operators typically have written rules covering when a driver may move, how a stop is positioned, and what must be confirmed before pulling away. Where a written procedure exists and was not followed, that is straightforward to establish once the procedure is in hand.
Where the injury happened at a stop or a terminal rather than on the vehicle, the claim may run against whoever controlled that location, which brings the premises liability framework into play alongside or instead of the carrier duty.
Coast RTA buses, tour coaches and resort shuttles share US-17 with heavy tourist traffic between Pawleys Island, Georgetown and Charleston. US-701 (N. Fraser Street) and SC-51 (Browns Ferry Road) carry inland routes. A visitor economy puts a large number of people on vehicles operated by private companies rather than by a public body, which entirely changes the ceiling on a claim.
Tour buses, charter coaches, resort and hotel shuttles, and airport transfers are private carriers. There is no cap on ordinary noneconomic damages; punitive damages remain available on clear and convincing evidence of wilful, wanton, or reckless conduct; and the deadline is the general three-year period.
Tour and charter companies that carry passengers across state lines must carry federally required liability coverage: at least $5 million for vehicles seating 16 or more, and $1.5 million for smaller vans.
When a private company operates under contract with a public body, the first question is which regime governs the company itself. That answer determines the deadline and the ceiling, and it is not always obvious from the vehicle's markings. It comes from the contract and the corporate records.
Getting that wrong in the claimant's favor is recoverable. Getting it wrong the other way, by assuming three years where two applied, is not.
When the operator is a public body, almost every rule changes at once. The deadline is two years rather than the general three, and the way the statute puts it matters.
Against a public operator, a suit must be filed within two years. You can extend that to three years only by filing a verified claim with the public body within one year of the injury. After you file a claim, you generally must wait up to 180 days, or until the claim is denied, before filing suit.
Minority tolling still applies because the limitations section preserves S.C. Code § 15-3-40.
Recovery is capped at $300,000 per person and $600,000 for all claims arising from a single occurrence, regardless of how many agencies were involved. A higher figure of $1,200,000 applies where the tort was committed by a government-employed licensed physician or dentist. Punitive damages and prejudgment interest are prohibited outright.
The venue is fixed by statute in the circuit court for the county where the act or omission occurred.
School bus injuries follow a separate South Carolina statute. That statute provides state insurance and a pupil injury fund, and the driver generally cannot be sued. These claims also run into the limits of the Tort Claims Act.
| Question | Public operator | Private operator |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline | Two years, three if a claim is filed first | Three years |
| Cap per person | $300,000 | None on ordinary noneconomic damages |
| Cap per occurrence | $600,000 total across all claimants | None |
| Punitive damages | Prohibited | Available on clear and convincing evidence |
| Prejudgment interest | Prohibited | Available |
| Venue | The county where the act or omission occurred | Ordinary venue rules |
Buses generate records that private vehicles do not, and most sit on a retention schedule that the operator controls.
Onboard video is the clearest example. Multi-camera systems record continuously and overwrite on a cycle, and footage that would settle a liability dispute is routinely gone before anyone asks. Other records include the driver's qualification file, training records, vehicle maintenance and inspection history, dispatch and route data, and the written boarding and securement procedures.
Where the operator is a public body, some records are obtainable through a public records request, and some are not, and the two routes run on different timetables. When the operator is private, they come through preservation demands and discovery.
A written preservation request is what protects it all. Sent early, it turns a routine overwrite into a decision the operator must justify.
That depends on the operator's retention policy, and many systems overwrite within weeks. Because the schedule is set by the operator rather than by law, an early written preservation request is the only reliable way to preserve footage that still exists.
An injured passenger recovers as long as their share of the fault is not greater than the defendant's, under Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243, 399 S.E.2d 783 (1991), with recovery reduced by that percentage and barred at 51 percent. Passengers are rarely assigned a large share, though it happens where boarding, standing, or leaving the vehicle is part of the sequence.
South Carolina courts have applied that division to public transit defendants. In Hurd v. Williamsburg County (S.C. 2005), a jury found a transit rider 42 percent at fault and the county transit authority 58 percent at fault after the rider was let off on a highway shoulder. The Supreme Court of South Carolina upheld the verdict, and the rider recovered, reduced by his share.
That case matters for a second reason. It confirms that a discharge claim against a public operator can go to a jury rather than be resolved based on the operator's characterization of where the passenger was set down.
For claims arising after January 1, 2026, S.C. Code § 15-38-15 lets a defendant ask the jury to assign fault to someone who was not sued. That person must be disclosed within 180 days of the lawsuit being filed (later for good cause), and you can then add them as a defendant. Some parties, including those immune from suit, cannot be placed on the verdict form.
Value is assembled from the same categories as any injury claim, with one variable that dominates: who operated the vehicle.
Against a private carrier, the ordinary rules apply. Economic damages cover treatment, future care, lost income, and lost earning capacity. Noneconomic damages cover pain, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment, and South Carolina places no general statutory cap on them in an ordinary injury case.
Against a public operator, the ceiling arrives immediately, and the $600,000 aggregate is divided among everyone hurt in the same incident. The public caps cannot be raised. But when a verdict exceeds them, South Carolina law lets you turn to the underinsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy for the difference.
Against a private operator, punitive damages are generally capped at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000 (adjusted each year for inflation). That rises to four times or $2 million in some cases, and there is no cap for intent to harm, a related felony conviction, or impairment by alcohol or drugs
For an older passenger, the noneconomic component is usually the larger half, because an injury that ends independent living is not captured by adding up medical bills. That loss is uncapped against a private carrier and capped against a public one, which is another reason the operator's identity is settled first.
When a passenger was visiting, treatment splits between a local hospital and providers at home. Published collisions in this county show patients taken to Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital, to Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, and to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Horry County.
Crashes inside Georgetown city limits are reported to the Georgetown Police Department. Crashes elsewhere in the county are handled by the Sheriff's Office or the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Injured riders are often taken to Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital or to Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital in Murrells Inlet, an Adult Level IV Trauma Center.
A route crossing into Horry County can put the report with a department a passenger would not think to contact, which is a practical reason to establish the location precisely.
The deadlines for filing a bus accident claim are three years for a private carrier and two years for a public operator, extendable to three years if a claim is first filed under the Tort Claims Act. A wrongful death claim runs from the date of death, and a death claim against a public operator is subject to the same Tort Claims Act deadlines and caps.
If you were hurt while working, workers' compensation is usually your only remedy against your own employer. You may still sue a third party, such as another driver or a bus company that is not your employer. Bring that claim within one year after the comp carrier accepts the claim, or the carrier can take over the right to sue.
Minority tolling under § 15-3-40 applies in each case.
Georgetown County cases are filed in the Georgetown County Court of Common Pleas (Fifteenth Judicial Circuit), 401 Cleland St., 1st Floor, Room 115, Georgetown, SC 29440. The Clerk of Court handles the filing of new civil cases, judgments, lis pendens, arbitration actions, and attachments. Where the defendant is a public body, the Tort Claims Act fixes venue in the county where the act or omission occurred.
A minor's settlement is resolved through the court rather than by private agreement with an insurer.
A route operated by a private company under contract with a public body is the situation that most often produces the wrong answer at the outset, and the wrong answer costs a year of the deadline.
The vehicle may carry public markings. The route may be published by a public body. The driver may be paid by a company whose name appears nowhere. Whether the Tort Claims Act governs, with its two-year clock and caps, or ordinary rules apply, with a three-year clock and no cap, depends on the legal character of the entity that employed the driver and operated the service.
South Carolina law settles part of this question by statute. A company that runs public transit on behalf of a regional transportation authority, such as the Coast RTA that serves Georgetown County, is treated as a government entity. The two-year deadline and the damage caps apply to it.
For other contractors, the question is whether the company is an independent contractor or acting as the public body's employee or agent. That is what the contract and corporate records decide.
Getting it wrong in the claimant's favor is recoverable. Getting it wrong the other way, by assuming three years where two applied, is not.
Not from the markings. The legal character of the operating entity is determined by the contract and corporate records and determines whether a two-year or three-year deadline applies.
The highest degree of care, though the carrier is not an insurer of passenger safety. The duty ordinarily ends when the passenger steps into a reasonably safe place.
Possibly. The carrier relationship ends when a passenger steps into a reasonably safe place, and whether the discharge point qualifies is a question of fact.
Three years for a private carrier. Two years against a public operator, extended to three if a claim is first filed under the Tort Claims Act.
Yes. Recovery is capped at $300,000 per person and $600,000 for all claims from a single occurrence, and punitive damages are not recoverable.
Nothing up front. Consultations are free and the fee is contingent on recovery.
At The Arndt Law Firm, we begin a carrier claim by identifying the operator and its legal character, because a public body, a tour company, and a contracted operator produce three different cases from identical facts, and that answer sets the deadline and the ceiling before anything else is decided.
When a passenger was injured while boarding or alighting, the operator's own written procedure is obtained and read against what actually happened, since most of these claims involve no collision. When an operator breaks its own written boarding or discharge rules, a South Carolina jury may consider that as evidence of negligence.
With an older passenger, the functional record is built alongside it, because an insurer will argue unsteadiness rather than the step. Attorney Jonathan S. Arndt has been licensed in South Carolina since 2018 and reviews our firm's bus accident cases.
Onboard footage is typically overwritten within weeks, well before either the two year or the three-year deadline becomes the operative constraint. Reach out to our firm today so we can review your case. Your initial case review is free, and no attorney fee without a recovery.
Last reviewed: August 2026
This page was reviewed by Jonathan S. Arndt, licensed in South Carolina since 2018.
Content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed South Carolina attorney for guidance specific to your situation.
