Posted on 12/02/2014 4:10:16 PM PST by deoetdoctrinae
KNOXVILLE — Two Sunnyview Primary School students and a Sunnyview teacher's aide died Tuesday afternoon when two school buses serving Sunnyview and Chilhowee Intermediate School crashed with "a big bang" in East Knoxville, authorities said.
~snip~
Police gave no names or ages of the students but said most ranged from kindergarten to second grade.
Relatives of at least one victim learned of the death at the scene from the police chief and burst into screams and tears.
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
The intersection has traffic lights and its reasonably visible. It sounds like catastrophic mechanical failure with wet roads {rainy day in East Tennessee} as a factor. Not sure if the river fog would factor in either. But that intersection is a few hundred yards from the river bridge.
Knox County like many other counties in the area made the huge mistake of middle and high school consolidations. Kids that once went to Holston High now go to Gibbs High and former Gibbs Middle school go to Holston. Bus routes are much longer than a few years ago and more dangerous roads are being driven as a result.
Prayers for the families. I wish the bus companies would go back to using conventional long nose buses. It might have made a big difference in a wreck like this one.
Looks like one of the buses ran a red light and struck the other.
That is my understanding as well. The weather here was (and still is) rainy, and the slick roads have been a factor in several accidents today. No way to know yet if that contributed to this accident, but it's certainly possible.
In that area they may have been out. Several times a year I go that route from I-40 to go down John Sevier highway to the Vet Cemetery to visit my dads grave. I'd say 50% of the time the traffic lights from that intersection down John Sevier too the rock quarry are either out entirely or flashing.
Yea I'm in eastern Anderson Co. It's been a mess here all afternoon rain and fog both. Odd thing is that's not the dangerous end of John Sevier even with the Industrial Park factored in. I avoid the Alcoa Highway to Chapman Highway stretch of John Sevier at all cost.
One of the newscasts quoted a witness saying “a car swerved and forced the buses to slam on their brakes” or such. It appears from the overhead that the crash was not right at the intersection, but maybe 200 yds west of there right at the bridge approach.
I note the schools being served by the two buses lie to the northeast and southwest of the crash site, but I couldn’t say what this implies, except that I doubt they were traveling together.
Also, there is a jug handle right at the crash site which is evidently new, as it does not appear in Google Maps. It appears to be an entrance to a road maintenance site there.
Of course, this is every parent’s, and every grandparent’s, nightmare.
There’s also the old Drive In Theater/Flea Market entrance between the bridge and the intersection. It is immediately south of the bridge right below it on the right going out of town. Wendy’s would be on the left at the intersection I think. www.wbir.com has some more pictures and the Wendy’s sign shows up in it.
It's not a maintenance site, it has a sign saying "Flea Market". There is a left turn lane for it from the westbound lane. ( In Google street view you can see some digging equipment where the jug handle is now. )
One of the buses has heavy front end damage, and the one lying on its side has damage down the length of the exposed side. From this it looks like the first bus swerved across the road and crashed into the side of the other one. One might speculate that someone turned in front of it at that left turn lane, causing the driver to swerve.
But we can’t require seat belts on buses! Nope, in our cars and trucks we can get pulled over and ticketed for not wearing one, but the kids on school buses? Nah; they don’t need them! Too expensive to install.
I looked at Channel 6 {WATE.com} picture and saw where the wreck was. One bus is between John Sevier Intersection and the Drive IN at the bridge. The other is likely on the other side of that intersection.
Looking at this picture it makes more sense http://www.wate.com/story/27528745/injuries-reported-in-east-knoxville-crash-involving-school-bus This is the intersection of John Sevier where you see the white Ford truck front end and is looking onto Ashville Highway from John Sevier and the view to the drivers left is back toward the river bridge and I-40 and the upright bus.
The bus that flipped from other sources looks like it is east of this intersection just barely or off to the right of this picture maybe in the intersection itself. The river bridge is a flat bridge so no overhead structures like the older one would be visible. This bridge IIRC is about a decade or less old.
The ridge line in the background is the river bluff. There is a small ridge between I-40 and the river. The buses could have legally been going as fast as perhaps 45 MPH and a bus fixing to flip could travel a ways. If I could place the Wendy's it would help but I can't remember. I think if you are coming off of John Sevier it is across Ashville Hiway and slightly right.
If a car swerved it was likely jockeying either coming out of John Sevier or wanting to turn onto it. Maybe someone late for work.
IIRC there is a maintenance road at the intersection itself. The intersection is being developed. I haven't been out there in about a month.
The bus on its side is right at the Flea Market entrance, on the other side of the road adjacent to the new jug handle. The other ( upright ) bus is in the middle of the road 25 yards to the east, and still 165 yards from the intersection with Sevier Hwy. I got these measurements from Google Earth by comparison with screen captures of aerial news video.
In the news videos the police line was on the west side of the Sevier intersection where the news people were broadcasting from, taking video of the accident scene further west down the road.
Is Tennessee a state where school buses are exempt from seat belt laws?
I can't do the Google Earth look ups I'm on very slow dial up service I'm just going on memory. The AutoZone mentioned is across from John Sevier Highway. I knew there was a store there but I couldn't remember if it was a Pilot, Weigles, or what. It's an Autozone. Telephoto media pics weren't helping me any.
I think so. Bus accidents of this magnitude are rare. The fact it was two buses in opposite directions even more so. The speed limit in that area I'm guessing is about 40 - 45 MPH. It's a four lane highway. The weather today was bad. It's rained since last night. Slick roads was a factor.
One thing I believe factors in. The roads in East Tennessee even in Knoxville were built when the conventional school buses were mainly used. They were shorter and had more front end protection as the engines were up front.
I live out in the sticks on a rural road and our road uses a flat nosed bus and the road really isn't suitable for it.
RIP.
My personal thoughts are that every school bus should have seat belts. Even if it was only an old style lap belt, that would surely be better than having nothing at all and having kids hurtling through the air in an awful crash like this.
But that would make sense. That would require govt to abide by the rules they set for us. That would not be acceptable.
If anyone would like to help with a small contribution, it would be appreciated.
Zykia was 6yrs old. The family has not asked for assistance but is facing many financial struggles along with the death of their daughter. This is legit.
http://www.gofundme.com/ukenniaarinze
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