The initial scene in Boston was chaotic after a white sedan clipped a school bus full of children, parents scrambling to determine the level of damage done to the youngsters. Roughly 30 elementary students were on the bus when the accident occurred. “I was just playing with my toys in my backpack. Then when the bus crashed. I hit the seat,” said one student aboard the bus.
Parents alerted to the accident frantically rushed to the accident site and 10 students were taken to an area hospital to be treated for injuries. The driver of sedan was also injured. No charges had been filed at this report, as authorities are still investigating.
The incident was unfortunately one of many occuring this week…
In what could only be the result of distracted driving, a SUV slammed into the back of a New Jersey school bus that was slowing to make a routine stop. “People drive fast. The bus stops there every day,” said one witness. The early morning crash sent more than a dozen middle school students and one adult to the hospital.
The bus was carrying approximately 30 students when the bus driver slowed during one of its usual stops, activating its yellow warning lights. The SUV, at a high-rate of speed, rear-ended the bus at this moment, severely damaging the front portion of the vehicle.
“I look, and you see the car,” said Len Messina. “It looked pretty serious,” said one witness. Multiple rescue units converged on the scene to transport the dozen students as well as the 25-year-old SUV driver and his two young occupants for hospitalization. Authorities continue to investigate the crash.
A former Ohio state legislator said he is relieved that no students were gravely harmed in an accident that killed the 21-year-old driver of a vehicle that collided head-on with a school bus, but he still exploited this tragedy to revive calls for seat belts aboard buses. “I’m glad no child was seriously injured or died in the accident, but I’m sad for the family of the person who did die in it. There were industry people who argued that it’s too costly to put seat belts on every bus or to retrofit buses to do that,” said Roland Winburn, who once served in the Ohio House of Representatives. He co-sponsored a failed school bus seat belt bill in 2014.
Nine students were transported to local hospitals for minor injuries. The driver, who was killed upon impact, was reportedly speeding and driving erratically, her vehicle crossing into opposing traffic and smashing into the bus. Authorities had yet to determine at this report if the driver was wearing her seat belt, but the fact that she was ejected from the vehicle is a strong indicator that she wasn’t. Authorities have also remained mum on whether alcohol or drugs were factors in the crash.
“It was scary. I heard a loud bang and then I was trying to figure out what was going on; looking around and figuring out what’s actually happening,” said one student on the bus. While the exact number of students aboard the bus hasn’t been released, school officials have said that it was at least half full. Teachers en route to school were some of the first to respond, assisting students off the bus and away from the scene. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, occupants of school transportation vehicles accounted for 8 percent of the road fatalities between 2003 and 2012. This statistic does not deter the former legislator. “What’s the cost of a life? What’s the cost of a family grieving? What’s the cost of a seat-belt at a retrofitting level or along the assembly line?” said Winburn.
A bus driver could serve over a month in jail after he was charged with careless and reckless driving for dragging a first-grader for almost a mile after her arm got stuck in the bus door. The 78 year old, who had driven for districts around North Carolina since 2000, was slapped with a Class 2 misdemeanor for his role in the Dec. 2015 incident. The 6 year old survived being hauled down the street with minor injuries, which forced the elderly driver to resign two days later.
On a final note, STN webinar presenter Pete Meslin has been getting good amount of press for his new Bus in the Classroom program, which will be exhibited at the TSD Conference in March. Meslin, director of transportation for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in California, developed the curriculum and materials to promote the safest and least restrictive environment for special needs students by utilizing school bus drivers to work with special education teachers on teaching independence skills in the classroom.
Meslin’s webinar, titled “Transportation: Thinking Like an Educator,” is presented on Feb. 25.
