After a spate of accidents involving RTD buses last year, we learned the vehicles aren’t always driven by RTD employees. Some are piloted by contractors, and as the Colorado Supreme Court ruled this week, those private companies are not immune from lawsuits. A judge overturned a ruling in a lower court that found a bus driver for First Transit to be protected by Colorado’s Governmental Immunity Act, writes the Denver Post. The latest ruling sets a precedent for other suits, including one stemming from an April 2010 collision at East 8th Avenue and Lincoln Street involving a contracted driver, which killed two and injured 10.

Some of those private companies were dealt a separate blow by the state House of Representatives this week, where legislators voted down a measure that would have required RTD to contract out half of its service, according to a separate Post article. The GOP-backed measure was on track to pass, but failed because Republican Representative Brian Del Grosso arrived too late to vote. He was stuck in traffic on I-25.