Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
Officials with a school bus safety company, the Miami-Dade County School District and the sheriff’s office are parsing through BusPatrol plans to possibly reinstate the program, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.
The initial aim back at the start of the 2024-25 school year — when the district’s buses were first equipped with the company’s cameras — was to capture the information of drivers who illegally passed buses with their stop arms extended. This was an effort to combat what officials at the time were calling a “huge safety concern” for children boarding and disembarking from school buses. Drivers who violated state law and passed buses with their stop arms extended were cited at least $225.
Within the first two weeks of the school year, thousands of citations were issued.
By March, the program was suspended. This was due to an overwhelming number of contested citations from drivers claiming they were not illegally passing school buses because they were on a road with a raised median. Outrage followed from such drivers who told reporters at the time that they were “they were stuck in limbo waiting for a court date that never came” when attempting to contest their citations.
Now, six months later, officials are working to reinstate the program and discussed it at a committee meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 2. A recent audit revealed that the program was not properly vetted and did not have proper communication between the agencies involved. As the program was implemented in other school districts in states like New York and Pennsylvania, there were allegedly issues with its implementation that the school district is said to not have investigated. While school officials disputed that claim, the audit alleged that information about the program’s issues in these states was available before the contract.
The school board will vote on Oct. 8 whether or not to adopt a proposal to handle the backlog of disputed citations and how they will begin laying the groundwork to later restart the program.
Leesfield & Partners
Safety at school is everything. It gives parents the peace of mind necessary to go about their day knowing that their children are safe and learning and allows children to enjoy their childhoods — where the biggest worries are homework and playground politics. Tragically, however, this is not always the case.
In 49 years of personal injury law, Leesfield & Partners attorneys have seen children injured or worse due to the negligence of those meant to care for them. Previously, Partner Justin B. Shapiro handled the case of a minor who was hit and severely injured by a distracted driver after his school bus driver instructed him to cross the street. In that case, our minor client was waiting at the corner of the intersection just after 6 a.m. to wait for the school bus.
While it was pitch-black outside, the driver stopped in the middle of the road and turned on the vehicle’s flashing lights before signaling for the waiting children to cross the street where there was no designated crosswalk. Trusting their school bus driver, the group of children began to cross the street. A speeding driver then hit our client, causing him to be knocked unconscious and needing to be airlifted to the hospital where doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury.
Not only should the speeding driver have taken more care, but an investigation by Leesfield & Partners revealed that the school bus driver was in violation of state law by failing to ensure there was at least 200 feet of visibility in the direction of oncoming traffic. She also failed to stop in the lane that was the furthest to the right and instead stopped in a middle lane, leaving the children vulnerable to this kind of incident.
Mr. Shapiro secured a confidential settlement for the minor and his family, which was over the insurance coverage of the at-fault vehicle.
It is through litigating these pedestrian and motor vehicle injury cases that the firm’s Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield, became an outspoken advocate for public safety. In the past, and through the involvement of his charitable organization, The Leesfield Family Foundation, Mr. Leesfield has partnered with safety and advocacy groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Friends of The Underline to highlight these glaring safety issues and ensure that drivers are aware.
In Miami-Dade County, where the firm’s main office is located, there have been a total of 1,304 pedestrian crashes for 2025. Of these incidents, at least 55 people died. Last year, there were at least 1,875 pedestrian incidents that resulted in 75 deaths.
Previous Cases
Our attorneys are dedicated to securing the best possible outcomes for each client. Through innovative trial strategies, sharp investigative skills and a profound understanding of the law, Leesfield & Partners relentlessly works to achieve exceptional results.
Leesfield & Partners obtained an $8.5 million settlement following a $27 million arbitration award for the family of a young woman who was killed by a pickup truck driver while trying to cross the street. The woman, a wife and mother of two, was visiting Florida from her home in Toronto, Canada, when she was crushed by a pickup truck. The driver in that case claimed to not have seen her.
In a case also handled by Mr. Shapiro, the maximum recoverable amount set forth in the defendant’s insurance policy limits for a woman who was horrifically injured while walking back to her office following a midday break. The woman in that case was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk when a pickup truck driver made an illegal left turn, claiming to not have seen her. Her injuries included skull fractures and brain hemorrhages in addition to injuries to her left leg.
A $6 million settlement was secured for the client in that case.
In another bus accident case handled by the firm, Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured $3 million for a family of a special needs adult killed in a rollover crash on a cruise ship excursion. The family in that case was traveling on a cruise ship when they booked an excursion to explore at one of the vessel’s scheduled stops. Due to a faulty vehicle and negligent driver, the bus the family was on was involved in a grisly rollover crash that caused their son to be ejected from the vehicle. He died from his injuries.
A pedestrian-involved case handled by Leesfield & Partners resulted in a $2.9 million recovery our client who was injured due to a driver’s negligence.
The firm settled a pedestrian case in which our client was hit while walking on the sidewalk by a driver who was distracted by a cellphone. That case was resolved with a $1.5 million settlement.
In a case against a bus company involving the tragic death of a pedestrian, Leesfield & Partners secured a $1 million recovery for the victim’s family.
