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The term “accident” can be defined in many ways. In common parlance, a vehicular
accident can mean a collision between two vehicles, a collision between a vehicle and an object,
or a vehicle running off the road. Linhart v. Lawson, where the plaintiff’s vehicle was struck by
a school bus, is one such typical case. Code § 22.1-194 broadly provides that a vehicle must be
“involved” in an accident, not that the vehicle itself must be damaged in any way or that it must
collide with another vehicle or object. In this case, we need not establish the outer reach of what
the term “accident” might mean because the allegations here – that the plaintiff was struck,
insulted, and allowed to leave the bus partially unclothed – do not even plausibly establish the
prerequisite of a vehicle “involved in an accident.” The school bus itself was not involved in any
accident. The plaintiff’s injuries do not relate in any way to the way the bus was being operated
or to the process of loading or unloading of passengers. Instead, the school bus was merely the
situs of the alleged tort. In other words, the actions that are the subject of the complaint may
have happened on the bus, but they did not involve the bus as a vehicle.
Our decision in Wagoner is not to the contrary. In that case, our opinion tracked the
parties’ presupposition that there had been an accident – a child was struck while walking
towards a school bus – and we proceeded to determine whether the insurance policy at issue
provided coverage. 256 Va. at 262-64. We simply did not address the contours of the
requirement that there must be “a vehicle involved in an accident.”
Finally, the plaintiff argues that the School Board is not immune when it comes to claims
of gross negligence. Although government employees are not immune from claims of gross
negligence, James v. Jane, 221 Va. 43, 53 (1980), the School Board itself benefits from
immunity from suit, whether the claims involve simple negligence, gross negligence, or even
intentional torts. See Patten v. Commonwealth, 262 Va. 654, 658 (2001) (“In the absence of Jump to an indexed page (6 of 6)