Just because an injury occurs in a vehicle does not mean the injury itself is the result of the vehicle's use as a vehicle. In this case, the school bus was merely the location of the injury. Credit: SnapshotPhotos/Shutterstock.com Just because an injury occurs in a vehicle does not mean the injury itself is the result of the vehicle's use as a vehicle. In this case, the school bus was merely the location of the injury. Credit: SnapshotPhotos/Shutterstock.com

The Third Circuit has granted an insurer's appeal that the company does not have to indemnify a school bus company and school district after finding that a sexual assault that occurred on a bus was not the result of the bus' use as a vehicle.

Brimar Transit provided transportation services for the Pittsburgh Public School District. Brimar and the school district collaborated to create a specific plan to keep K.M., a female student with special needs, physically distant from a male student, also with special needs, who had sexually assaulted K.M. multiple times. K.M.'s regular bus driver enforced this plan, as did the first substitute driver who filled in while the regular driver was on leave. 

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