The ongoing coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of a scheduled April 7 meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board to release investigative findings and resulting recommendations on a 2018 collision of a pickup truck and four students who were crossing a rural Indiana road to their waiting school bus.
Instead, the NTSB said in a release on Tuesday that it will electronically release the probable cause, findings and safety recommendations on the Oct. 30, 2018 incident that killed 6-year-old twin brothers Mason and Xzavier Ingle and their 9-year-old stepsister Alivia Stahl.
Another student, 11-year-old Maverick Lowe, was also crossing with the siblings from a trailer park community to their school bus parked on Indiana State Road 25 with a posted 55 mph speed limit in rural Rochester County, when they were struck by motorist Allyssa Shepherd.
Lowe survived but suffered multiple broken bones and underwent 20 surgeries.
Shepherd was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year, after being found guilty on three felony counts of reckless homicide, one felony count of criminal recklessness and a misdemeanor count of passing a school bus and causing injury when the stop-arm is extended.
She could have been sent to prison for 21.5 years.
NTSB said Tippecanoe Valley Community School Corporation bus had its federally mandated red warning lights activated e and stop arm extended. The school bus driver had waved the four students across the roadway, when Shepherd’s pickup truck, which was traveling south, struck the children.
An abstract of the final report will be available on the NTSB website when the report is approved by the Board.
Related: Woman Sentenced in Fatal 2018 Indiana School Bus Crash Files Appeal
Related: Woman Found Guilty in Fatal 2018 Indiana School Bus Stop Crash
Related: New Indiana and Kentucky Legislation Fights Illegal School Bus Passing
