27 deaths x 14 years (1990-2004) = 368 deaths according to your stat.
Did a quick search and found a couple of articles for you. They are heavily excerpted to save space. I've injected a few comments of my own, in purple. I'm posting the following article for a stat listed near the end. Keep in mind that the article was published in 2001, so its number will be for less years than the 14 above.
BY MICHAEL VIGH and JACOB SANTINI
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
A bus taking children home from school got caught in a furious snowstorm Thursday and was struck by the blade of a careening snowplow, killing a 9-year-old girl and injuring 12 of her schoolmates.
Police extricated the injured children from the bus following the 3:30 p.m. crash on state Route 6, three miles north of Delta. Camille Kunzler was rushed to Delta Hospital, where a short time later she was pronounced dead of massive head injuries.
Two students, ages 8 and 13, were rushed by ambulance to the trauma center at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo with critical head injuries, said spokesman Bryant Larson.
The other students were recovering from an assortment of injuries that ranged from cuts and lacerations to broken bones at Delta Hospital, said spokeswoman Sonya Taylor.
The other victims' names were not released by Thursday night, but Taylor said the students attend Delta North Elementary School and Delta Middle and High School. There were at least 20 students aboard, said Ted Tingey, Utah Highway Patrol spokesman.
The bus driver, John Lightener, suffered broken bones and cuts, while the Utah Department of transportation snowplow driver, Glen Allen Christensen, sustained multiple lacerations of the face and head, Taylor said.
Blizzardlike conditions, including high winds and drifting snow, grounded a Life Flight helicopter, which had been requested by emergency workers, said LDS Hospital spokesman Jess Gomez.
At the time of the accident, winds in excess of 30 mph and blowing snow put visibility at less than one mile, said Wayne Brady, National Weather Service meteorologist.
"These were extreme weather and snow conditions," Tingey said.
The westbound bus was taking children home just after school when the eastbound snowplow hit a snowdrift, spun around, "and went down the side of the bus just like a can opener," Keith Griffiths, school district business manager, told The Associated Press.
The plow's blade hit with such force that it cut halfway into the bus, ripping out four seats, said Delta Assistant Fire Chief Ben Johnson.
A Millard School District bus that was following the first bus stopped and took the uninjured children home, Tingey said.
Department of Transportation spokesman Myron Lee said officials were doing everything possible to assist the Utah Highway Patrol in its investigation.
"It's a tragic event," Lee said. "Anytime something like this involves school children, it's really bad."
The investigation continued through the night and resulted in the closure of a portion of SR-6 for several hours.
As news of the accident spread through the tight-knit farming community on the edge of Utah's Great Basin, shock turned to sadness.
"It's quite upsetting to us all," said Lee Tippetts, a member of the Millard Board of Education. "It's going to be
very, very devastating and I guess you could say disconcerting."
Taylor said the emergency room was overflowing with patients, family members and concerned members of the community.
"We're doing OK, we're just trying our best to deal with all of this," she said.
Since 1990, there have been just over 1,300 school bus-related crashes nationwide, according to the latest available data compiled last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those accidents have claimed the lives of 1,450 people, many of them children.
The worst road crash in Utah history occurred on Dec. 1, 1938, when an eastbound Jordan High School bus was struck by a fast-moving train on 10600 South near State Street. The accident, which like Thursday's happened during a blinding snowstorm, claimed the lives of 24 Jordan High School students.
Two years ago, 19 schoolchildren were treated for a variety of injuries after a bus traveling from Kanarraville to Cedar Middle and Cedar City High schools hit an icy spot on Interstate 15, tipped over and rolled.
© Copyright 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune
Fort Smith, Arkansas • Monday, June 4, 2001
5 Remain In Hospitals After Bus Accident
By John Lyon
Times Record
Four people remained hospitalized Sunday after a school bus accident that claimed the lives of two Mountainburg teenagers Thursday.
Nine Mountainburg students were injured when a tractor-trailer crashed into the No. 14 school bus Thursday afternoon near the junction of Arkansas 282 and Interstate 540, just outside the small Crawford County town.
Elwin Rhoads III, 15, died at the scene of the accident. Travis Foster, 15, was transported to Crawford Memorial Hospital in Van Buren and died Thursday while undergoing surgery, according to school officials.
Both vehicles rolled into ditches after the impact, and three of the students, including Rhoades, were partially ejected from the bus and crushed as it rolled over, according to Crawford County Coroner Pam Porter. The students’ seats on the bus were not equipped with seat belts.
related to the article above
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
Public Meeting of September 4, 2002
Sumary of Final Report
Three school bus passengers seated across from the impact area were fatally injured; one was partially ejected. Two other passengers, one of whom was seated in the impact area, received serious injuries, and four passengers had minor injuries. The school bus driver and the truckdriver both sustained minor injuries
From the conclusions:
The impact and subsequent rotation of the bus caused passengers seated in the rear to be thrown from their seating compartment and into the area of intrusion; incomplete compartmentalization and impact with nonenergy-absorbing surfaces within the bus contributed to the serious and fatal injuries sustained by these passengers.
Student hurt in school bus crash dies
August 28, 2003
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- A 14-year-old girl has died after suffering severe injuries in a southern Illinois school bus crash earlier this week.
Shawna Ward's legs and pelvis were crushed in the accident, which happened Wednesday near Vandalia. She was moved to Springfield's Memorial Medical Center and had been listed in critical condition since the crash.
(Sounds like she didn't remain 'compartmentalized', like she was supposed to.)
Hospital spokesman Michael Leathers said Friday that Ward had died. He said he was not allowed to disclose when she died or to discuss her injuries.
Another victim of the bus accident remained in critical condition, Leathers said.
related to above article
School Bus Overturns, Injures 16
August 27, 2003
Two students flown to a hospital in Springfield were in critical condition, said Vandalia School Superintendent Garry Krutsinger.
One of those students, 14-year-old Shawna Ward, was pinned under the bus, her parents said. ``Her pelvis is crushed. Her legs are crushed. Her spine seems to be OK,'' said Debbie Ward.
(Oh, yes. Seat belts definately would have helped in this case. Would have kept her inside the bus! If one life is saved, then the 3-5 % cost increase is worth it. jmho)
Police: Distraction was cause behind school bus wreck
BY LUCAS ROEBUCK Siloam Springs Herald-Leader
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
SILOAM SPRINGS — Police said driver distraction was most likely the cause of an accident that killed a 14-year-old girl and injured over 20 other children, but they are continuing to investigate happened when a Siloam Springs school bus drove down a 20-foot embankment Monday. Fourteen-year-old Jessica Price of Siloam Springs was killed and seven others were hospitalized. Police released the names of the hospitalized students Tuesday at a press conference also attended by school officials.
The following children were hospitalized with significant injuries following the bus accident, according to school officials:
• Alexandria Cowell, 9, was released Tuesday from Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. She is a fourth-grade student at Southside West Elementary School.
• Eric England, 9, was listed Tuesday in critical condition at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. He is listed as a second-grade student at Southside East Elementary School.
• Brothers Meng and Keng Vang, 10 and 12 respectively, were both hospitalized as of Tuesday at Washington Regional Medical Center. Meng, in the fifth grade at Southside West Elementary School, was listed in critical condition. Keng, a seventhgrade student at Siloam Springs Middle School, was listed in fair condition.
• Kristina Miers, 14, had surgery at Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital and Tuesday was expected to be released. She is an eighthgrader at Siloam Springs Middle School.
• Casey Baker, 15, as of Tuesday was in critical condition at Northwest Regional Medical Center in Springdale. He is a ninth-grade student at Siloam Springs High School.
Friday, Dec. 1, 2000
Boy killed in school bus crash
32 others are injured when bus overturns in Christian County By JAMES MALONE
The Courier-Journal
HERNDON, Ky. -- A bus carrying 47 students to a Christian County elementary school skidded off a narrow two-lane road and overturned yesterday, killing a 5-year-old boy who was ejected through a window.
The dead boy was identified by police as Tyler Powers of Oak Grove. He was the only passenger ejected from the bus after it dropped off the right side of Ky. 117, less than a mile from the school, and then pitched back across the pavement and rolled over, coming to rest on its right side. No other vehicles were involved.
Trooper Bryan Pitney, a state police spokesman, said Tyler probably would not have been ejected if he had been wearing a seat belt. Kentucky law does not require seat belts on school buses.
NOVEMBER 3, 2000
Ariz. School Bus Flips Over, 1 Dead
CHINLE, Ariz. (AP) — A bus carrying high school students to a band competition drove off a road Friday and flipped over, killing one person and seriously injuring another, Navajo police said.
The Chinle Unified School District Bus, which was en route to Las Vegas, had 37 people on board when it drove off Highway 191 on the Navajo Reservation. No other vehicles were involved, police spokesman Capt. Francis Bradley said.
School Bus Death Calls Attention To Seat Belt Debate
November 11, 2004
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A school bus crash that left one teenage student dead has r evived the debate about whether students should be required to wear seat belts on school buses.
Diana Kautz was a freshman at Royal Palm Beach High School. She was not wearing the lap belt on her school bus when it collided with a pickup truck and rolled over last week. She was ejected and killed. School officials are considering whether wearing the lap belts should be mandatory.
(If they have the smarts and have put forth money to make sure the buses have the seat belts, they should have the smarts to make sure they are used by making it mandatory to use them.)
State legislator Irv Slosberg is calling for buses to add shoulder harnesses to provide even more protection for students. He brought up a bill that would require shoulder belts on school buses last year but it was never heard.
Florida began requiring all new school buses to have seat belts in 1999, but wearing them is not a requirement. Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press
School bus crash kills driver, injures dozensThursday October 7, 2004
BLAIR — A bus driver was killed and dozens of children were injured Thursday afternoon when a school bus collided with a delivery truck in western Fairfield County.
Just after 3 p.m., a 1988 International school bus carrying at least 36 pupils from McCrorey-Liston Elementary in Blair was heading north on S.C. 215 when it struck a 1996 Ford delivery truck heading west on S.C. 34. The truck had run a stop sign, state Highway Patrol spokesman Bryan McDougald said.
The bus driver was identified as Sophia Dontae Woodard, 34, of Blair, said Fairfield County Coroner Joe Silvia. She was taken to Fairfield Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy will be performed.
Woodard was ejected from the bus, according to the Highway Patrol. Her 4-year-old daughter, Dedra, was also on the bus and suffered minor injuries, officials said.
Eddie Trapp, of Fairfield County, was with his 9-year-old son inside a convenience store at the intersection when the crash occurred. He said he opened the back door and began pulling pupils out of the overturned bus.
His 9-year-old son, Natrone, witnessed the wreck. The fourth-grader vividly described his friends’ injuries. One boy was vomiting blood. Another one had a broken leg, and a third had a “big bruise on his head that was bleeding,” he said.
Five children and the truck driver were taken to Columbia, said Dr. Ron Fuerst, medical director of the hospital’s children’s emergency center. Two of the six were transported by helicopter to Palmetto Health Richland.
Forty-six children were taken to Fairfield Memorial Hospital in Winnsboro, said Clarence Willie, Fairfield County School District superintendent.
Three of the injured children were Myron Sims’, a single dad who takes his children to school in the morning but lets them ride the bus in the afternoon.
Today, they won’t be in class, he said. His daughter doesn’t like that idea.
“I want to go to school,” begged 6-year-old Gilana Sims. But her dad, who said he has mixed feelings about putting his children back on the bus, said no way.
“Daddy’s petrified,” Sims told Gilana as he prepared to leave Fairfield Memorial Hospital where his children were treated and released.
Gilana was sitting between her brothers Shalom, 10, and Shakir,q 11, when the wreck happened. She flew into the air and landed on one of them. The other brother hit his head on the roof of the bus.
related to the above article
LETTER FROM DR. ARTHUR L. YEAGER, DMD, MMH
REGARDING THE ARTICLE ABOVE:
For the past 30 years, as an officer of Physicians for Automotive Safety and the National Coalition for School Bus Safety, Dr. Yeager has been a leader in efforts to improve school bus safety.
Mr. Gonzales:
Read your article about the Blair accident. Once again, in a roll over accident children are thrown about and injures within school buses because they do not have the protection of seat belts. In this accident, although the driver's position usually is equipped with a seat belt, the driver apparently made a fatal decision not to us the restraint and as a result, was ejected from the bus.
For some time I have worked to make school buses safer. Thought you might be interested in the following:
Why are there no seat belts on school buses?
Those who transport the children will tell you that seat belts are not needed because children are safely "compartmentalized" between high back, well anchored padded seats.
Here are some facts that you may find of interest:
Every school day 23 million children ride 500,000 familiar yellow school buses back and forth to school. At an annual cost of over 7 billion dollars, these buses travel over 5 billion miles a year. While they may appear to be reasonably safe, many parents become concerned when they find that their large school buses are not equipped with seat belts. After all, from the time their youngsters came home from the hospital, mother and dad have been careful to place their children in child restraints. Now, on the way to school, the habit of seat belt use painstakingly learned is about to be broken.
Thirty-five years ago in California, automotive engineers performed a classic series of school bus crash studies, which determined that the major cause for injury in school bus accidents was the inadequacy of school bus seats. They proposed “compartmentalization” of the child occupants between high-back, well-padded and well-anchored seats capable of absorbing crash forces and proposed that massive aisle side panels be installed to contain riders. A lap belt was also suggested to provide substantial additional protection.
Then, in 1977, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Agency responsible for school bus safety standards ordered some of the proposed features; a seat better anchored, padded and 4 inches higher than seats then in use. However, the standard fell far short by failing to include the all-important compartmentalizing side panel, and the lap belt. As a result “compartmentalization” was significantly compromised, working adequately for front-end crashes but providing no passenger protection in side impacts and bus rollovers.
Although the failure of the school bus seat to properly “compartmentalize” in side impact and rollover accidents has been detailed to NHTSA in petitions, during Congressional testimony and at NHTSA forums, the Agency has stubbornly ignored the deficiency.
Although front-end school bus crashes occur only about one-third of the time, NHTSA has persisted in obscuring the absence of lateral and rollover protection by testing and evaluating the seat entirely for front-end crashes and never measuring what happens to passengers in side impact and rollover accidents. It is characteristic of front-end crash testing to show the seat to its best advantage and seat belts at their most inefficient.
Furthermore, testing only those circumstances where the seat will perform well leads to conclusions that serve to exaggerate the safety of school buses and implies a level of safety that is invalid. By way of example, imagine a vehicle that has good steering but faulty brakes. If only the steering is tested the authorities are able to insist that the vehicle is safe. And no matter how many times the vehicle is tested, if only the steering is checked, the myth of safety continues. In the meanwhile, the inadequacy of the braking system continues to cause harm.
While the motive for the unrelenting denial by NHTSA of this obvious defect is unclear, the resultant harm caused by “compromised compartmentalization” to the child passengers is most evident.
In September of 1999 the highly respected National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a report on school bus crashworthiness. The study described a series of school bus accidents where “compartmentalization” failed to protect the passengers. Children were injured and killed as a result of both ejection and being tossed violently within the bus itself. The Board concluded that, “Current compartmentalization is incomplete in that it does not protect school bus passengers during lateral impacts and in rollovers, because in such accidents, passengers do not always remain completely within the seating compartment." They explained that those who were propelled from the compartment during collisions were more likely to be injured.
Conclusion. Once again NHTSA has failed miserably in addressing the problem of “compromised compartmentalization” in school bus side impact and rollover accidents. As a direct result, children will continue to be killed and injured in school bus accidents.
Concerned parents should demand that local and state officials take more seriously their responsibilities to protect America’s children.
Here in New Jersey we have required all new school buses to be equipped with seat belts for the past 11 years and use by all passengers is required. New York also requires installation of seat belts.
It does not make sense to require passengers of automobiles to use their seat belts and not even provide restraints for the children on school buses.
Arthur L. Yeager, DMD, MMH
alyeager@aol.com
December 20, 2001
16 hurt in bus crash
By HEATHER LOURIE and KELLY TOKARSKI
The Orange County Register
15 students, driver are injured, fueling a debate over seatbelt laws.
ALISO VIEJO -- Fifteen children suffered head and neck injuries Wednesday after a school bus was struck by a car, prompting consumer advocates to question why California doesn't have seatbelts on buses.
The children's injuries might have been prevented if there were restraint systems, say police and fire officials.
"Those children are like a thing of popcorn thrown around in that bus," said Sandra Schultz, 59, of Laguna Niguel. The mother of five was outraged.
While 15 students were treated and released for minor injuries at area hospitals, California Highway Patrol officer Joe Escobar said the injuries might have been lessened or even prevented if the students were wearing seatbelts.
"Every other vehicle on the road has seatbelts; I don't understand why school buses don't," said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Brian Chadburn.
By 2002, every new or leased school bus in California was to be required to have lap and shoulder belts. But that date was pushed back three years because manufacturers were reluctant to install seat-belt systems on buses without specifications from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is expected to issue a new report in the spring.
New York and New Jersey require lap belts on school buses.
Former Assemblyman Martin Gallegos, D-Baldwin Park, who wrote the bill requiring the extra safety protections, said the belts would increase the cost of an average bus by 3 percent to 5 percent.
School buses currently use a system called "compartmentalization." Seat backs are padded, about 21 to 24 inches high, and are designed to keep students in the seating compartment while absorbing crash forces.
"That is very effective," said Robin Leeds, a regulatory liaison with the industry's National School Transportation Association in Arlington, Va. "It doesn't depend on the student to do anything."
(Actually, it's been proven that it isn't effective. As we've seen, that doesn't work. The kids go flying through the air and over the seats, and sometimes over several seats and out or through windows.)
"The seating is designed to keep a child very protected because the seats are padded, and the kids sit above the impact zone," he said.
Still, the California Association of School Transportation Officials favors shoulder and lap belts on buses.
"Children will be safer, is the bottom line," said Doug Snyder, government-relations chair for the group.
Train Saw Bus Before Tenn. Crash
By Angela K. Brown
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, April 1, 2000; 5:08 p.m. EST
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. –– Two crew members on a freight train say they watched in helpless horror as a school bus sped toward a crossing in the seconds before it was struck by the train's locomotive, investigators said Saturday.
The accident Tuesday morning just north of the Georgia state line killed three children. Five others including the bus driver were injured, and two children remained in critical condition Saturday.
The impact ripped the body of the bus from its chassis and dragged it 100 yards. Three children and the driver were ejected, and four other children remained inside the bus.
Investigators have studied a videotape from a camera mounted inside the bus and have talked to a child who was wearing a lapbelt and was the least injured. According to the recording, several people were talking in the bus and the radio was playing, Suydam said, but he would not elaborate.
related to article above
In the GA accident, apparently, a child was wearing a seat belt, rode thru the crash, dusted herself off and crawled out thru the wreckage.
Some, opposed to the use of seat belts, would have predicted that a child would be cut in half and eviscerated, or worse, when subjected to the extremely high crash forces engendered by a fully loaded multi car freight train. Didn't happen. In fact, of those who were supposed to be "...safely compartmentalized between high back, well padded seats." were thrown violently about the bus, some ejected, three died and the others were critically injured. On board video should be an extremely interesting study of the ability of school bus seats to "compartmentalize" (if the NTSB ever allows release.
For story see Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/newsatlanta/buscrash/survivors.html
Looks like seat belts on school buses DO work!
Newark Star-Ledger
School bus flips, but all aboard OK
09/20/00
OLD BRIDGE: Six autistic children and two adults escaped injury yesterday when a mini- school bus skidded on the rain- slick Garden State Parkway and flipped over near Exit 120, State Police said.
The bus was coming from the Kinderglide Children's Center of Monmouth County in Neptune about 3 p.m. when the driver, Jeanne McAter, 51, of Belford, lost control of the vehicle, said Trooper Terrence Carroll.
Carroll said the bus skidded across the three lanes of the highway, hit the left-side guardrail, and flipped over on the driver's side.
All of the occupants were in either seat belts or child restraints, police said. The children, all from the Aberdeen-Marlboro area, ranged in age from 3 to 13; also aboard were the driver and an aide.
Rescue workers who came to the scene examined each of the occupants and determined none was injured, the trooper said. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.
Chesapeake, Ohio - December 11, 2000
The mechanism of the accident (sent by the husband of the adult aide badly injured in the crash)
Going into a left-hand curve on a paved 2-land road, the driver dropped his passenger side front wheel off the road to his right. He cut the steering wheel sharply to the left, causing the bus to veer into a half-circle to the left, crossing both lanes of the road & rolling completely over, coming to rest back on its wheels in an open meadow on the left. One adult aide critically injured, one student ejected, seriously injured, two students less seriously injured, driver not injured. Driver was wearing seatbelt, the only one on the bus! As for my wife, she is recovering by degrees. We have both OTs & PTs coming to our home three days a week. Praise the Lord for allowing her to survive the accident to begin with after 22 days in ICU, fully sedated. Also, praise the Lord for His protecting her from any obvious spinal or leg injury despite her receiving an impact great enough to have fractured both scapulae
Her other injuries included: Both lungs badly bruised, most of her ribs fractured, several of them shattered into fragments, both clavicles fractured, right humerus fractured, most abdominal organs bruised with some internal bleeding and many other minor injuries to various areas of her body.
A video of the accident scene will be in the archives of WSAZ-TV, Huntington, WV, and another video in the archives of WOWK-TV, Huntington, WV.
APRIL 06, 2001
High School Bus Crashes in Georgia
By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press Writer
ST. MARYS, Ga. (AP) — A bus carrying high school band members flipped onto its side on Interstate 95 on Friday, injuring 24 people, two critically. The band from Massey Hill Classical High School in Fayetteville, N.C., was heading to a competition in Orlando, Fla. The bus was the only vehicle involved in the crash, which happened on a dry road about 6:30 a.m. about half a mile north of the Florida line.
Joe Kuryla, 18, said, ``Everybody was flying all over the place,'' he said. ``After everything stopped, everybody was screaming. I was just trying to keep everybody calm — `Chill out, we're all going to get out of here.'''
Seventeen people were treated at Camden Medical Center in St. Mary’s, most of them for broken bones, cuts and scrapes. Seven students with more serious injuries were taken to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. Two were listed in critical condition and three others in serious condition.
Driver ran sign, police say
First published: Saturday, October 23, 1999
Cobleskill -- Girl, 7, still in critical condition after accident that cops say occurred when the school bus driver failed to stop at intersection
A day after one of the Capital Region's worst school bus crashes, authorities said Friday that the 79-year-old driver failed to stop for a flashing red light at a rural Schoharie County intersection where his bus full of second-graders was broadsided by a dump truck, authorities said Friday.
Seven-year-old Bianca Roman remained in critical condition at Albany Medical Center Hospital with a head injury. Joanne Jiminez, 37, a chaperone, remained in serious condition.
Robert Accetta, the NTSB investigator in charge, said it appeared that most if not all of the students were wearing lap belts.
Though investigators were tight-lipped about specifics of the crash, they did speculate that seat belt use may have greatly reduced injuries for those children not sitting at the impact area. In a side-impact wreck, children not wearing the belts would be thrown around like rag dolls, said one investigator, who did not want his name used.
"We have our top bio-mechanical investigative group here looking through the bus and at the hospital collecting data on all of the children's specific injuries,'' said George W. Black Jr. of Washington, an NTSB engineer. "We have an opportunity here to look at what happens inside a bus when seat belts are in use.''
Federal investigators are confident that the crash will provide invaluable information on how seat belt use affects the motions and injuries to children in a bus hit in the side by a large, fast-moving vehicle, Black said.
Black said the crash is a particularly important one for the agency, which released a study in September concluding that it could not recommend that the federal government require seat belts in buses.
Earlier studies of actual crashes have mostly involved rear or front impacts, and insufficient information is available on side impacts, Black said.
Black said the safety board wants current standards, which require that children be protected by padded seats and high seat backs, which were both on the Kinnicutt bus, expanded within the next two years so children will have a better chance of remaining inside a bus during a side collision or rollover.
By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer
Staff writer Carol DeMare and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
School bus accident injures 15, revives seat belt talk
Las Vegas, NV - July 27, 1999
By Robert Macy - ASSOCIATED PRESS
A 10-year-old girl remained in critical condition this morning from injuries suffered when a school bus and a pickup truck collided at a busy intersection.
Monday's crash injured 14 of the 52 students on board as well as the bus driver. And it revived talk of equipping school buses with seat belts.
A young girl, found under a seat on the bus, suffered critical injuries. Her name was not released.
Clark County School District officials say seat belts are not needed.
Mary Stanley-Larsen, a spokeswoman for the district, said the bus had no seat belts and none were required by law.
"Studies that have been done nationally show that in a majority of cases, they would not make any difference," she said.(Oh, I think we can see that seat belts do save lives; in cars, trucks, SUV's and buses!)
September 24, 2000
17 Eureka kids sent to hospital after bus crashes
Three adults on the bus also went to the hospital. By late Saturday, all but two of the injured had been released.
By Novelda Sommers
The Wichita Eagle
As the bus swerved, he shouted for everyone to brace themselves, he said. The students grabbed the seatbacks in front of them, but some were thrown forward over several seats, he said. After the bus came to rest, windows were shattered and some students were bleeding.
Thursday, October 10, 2002
School Bus, Truck Collide in Michigan
By JOHN SEEWER
ERIE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A truck hauling steel coils crashed into the side of a school bus taking youngsters on a field trip Thursday, injuring more than three dozen children and adults, eight critically.
``It was just bodies all over the place,'' said firefighter Cliff Moore.
The impact sent the bus, carrying kindergartners and first- and second-graders on a field trip, spinning across the road and threw at least five children onto the pavement and into a yard.
Cedric Epps said his wife and daughter both were on the bus and that his wife called on a cell phone within a minute of the crash.
She told him their 6-year-old daughter had been injured badly and was ``flung around inside the bus,'' he said.
September 23, 2000 School-bus wreck sends 32 students to hospital
By TIM MCGLONE AND VANDANA SINHA© 2000, The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Sixth-grader Stacey Clark was one of the lucky ones. Bumping along on her school bus Friday morning on the way to Corporate Landing Middle School, Stacey felt the bus swerve right, then left, and then she was airborne. ``All of a sudden, all I saw was feet,'' said the 12-year-old, whose birthday was Wednesday.The bus veered out of control at 8:45 a.m. on Harpers Road, off Dam Neck Road. It keeled over on its side, sending the 40 students on board flying. Stacey was among eight of the students who did not end up at the hospital.
Once the bus began swerving, book bags and purses began flying. As did children. They tumbled to the ground amid a cacophony of screaming and crying passengers and cracking bus windows. Some students lost their shoes. At least one arm was caught under the bus. Some students fell unconscious. Students pulled their way out of the bus, stepping on one another.
Police said the driver, Beth Ann Karwoski, 34, lost control of the bus as she rounded a curve on Harpers Road. The bus ran into a ditch, then Karwoski pulled the wheel sharply to the left and the bus turned sideways and keeled over.
``She saw an oncoming truck. She swerved to avoid hitting the bus' mirrors on the truck,'' said David L. Pace, director of transportation services for the Beach schools. Karwoski has been placed on administrative leave. Karwoski's 20-month-old son was strapped into a car seat and buckled into the front seat of the bus. The child was not hurt, and was taken home by his father.School officials said policy allows bus drivers to carry their own preschool children, along with students, as long as the child is older than 1 and is placed in a car seat.
The rescuers set up a triage area for the injured. Chaplain noticed that one girl had a bad knee injury. He noticed a bone sticking out and didn't want her to notice it and become more hysterical. ``Her knee looked so horrible. It was really a mess. I ripped my shirt off and wrapped it around her leg,'' he said. He said trying to calm the children was difficult. ``It seemed as we got them out of the bus, they got more hysterical,'' he said.
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Bus crash brings call for seat belts
Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion said he hopes that parents will revisit the issue of having seat belts on school buses in the wake of Monday's bus accident in Standish.
"I think school buses are at their core very safe vehicles," he said. "The odds (of a crash) are very low, but if they're in an accident I would like to be able to say that every precaution was taken."
The issue of seat belts on school buses has been a source of continuing debate across the country. Three states require buses to be equipped with seat belts: California, Florida and New Jersey. But most state and federal safety officials say belts provide little or no benefit at great expense.
Buses are designed to absorb the impact of a crash and although passengers are thrown forward, the high seat in front of them provides a soft buffer to land against.
This kind of design is called compartmentalization, and it's efficacy can clearly be seen when looking at bus accident statistics, said Boatman.(An earlier article mentioned a 3% to 5 % increase in cost. Again other articles prove their statement wrong about seat belts being beneficial on school buses.)
In Monday's accident, a bus carrying Bonny Eagle High School and middle school students crashed into a house, sending two youths to the hospital with minor injuries. Police say the driver of the bus, Linda Allen, lost control of the vehicle when she hurt herself trying to catch a falling soda cup.
Dion said Allen claims that she was wearing her seat belt. He said the District Attorney's Office will decide if she will face charges.
The reason the state is hesitant to add shoulder-lap belts to the buses, Boatman said, is because it reduces the capacity of a bus by about 30 percent. School districts would have to buy more buses and hire additional drivers.
While Dion said he agreed that buses were a safe form of transportation, he said he believed shoulder and lap belts should be installed on school buses.
"The most common kind of crash is not head-on," he said. "The most frequent is someone getting broadsided at an intersection."
In that kind of crash, children are thrown from their seats sideways, not forward, which compartmentalization design does not handle, he said.
The added expense of equipping the buses should not be an issue, Dion said.
"I would hope when we're talking about cost and a child's safety, I would hope the cost would simply be a gauge to what we have to spend to correct a problem. If we need to add vehicles to make kids safe, why wouldn't we?" Dion said.
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc
Car crash topples city school bus
November 19, 2003
NASHUA – Twelve preschool-age children escaped serious injuries when a Toyota Camry slammed broadside into their school bus, knocking it over, at the intersection of Pine and West Hollis streets Tuesday morning.
A monitor on the bus, Flora Molan, 58, of Manchester, was the only one hurt in the crash. She was trapped between seats after the bus tipped onto its side, and firefighters sawed open the bus roof to get her out.
The mid-sized Chevrolet school bus was equipped with seatbelts, and all of the children were wearing them, officials said. Although generally not found on full-sized buses, seatbelts are common on smaller buses, a local bus company employee said.
“It worked out really well,” Rockingham Ambulance Executive Director Chris Stawasz said of the seat belts. “That’s probably the primary reason that they weren’t injured.”
Dramatic Video Shows School Bus Rolling Over
Driver Could Be Fined For Rollover
September 30, 2003
Circleville Bus Crash Video - click here
CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio -- Video of a Pickaway County school bus that veered off a road and rolled onto its side was played in court Thursday as the bus driver went on trial
The driver, Lani Davis, 44, was charged with failure to control her Logan Elm School District bus.
The tape showed children tumbling and screaming on Sept. 30 as the bus rolled onto its side on Morris-Leist Road near the high school. The video was recorded by an overhead camera inside the bus.
Bus-truck collision hurts 31, mostly teens
October 12, 2003 The rented bus was carrying players, cheerleaders and coaches from the Gibbstown Midget Football League home about 2:30 p.m. when the accident occurred at Democrat and Swedesboro Roads.
The impact flipped the bus, which was on Democrat Road, onto its side and crumpled the hood of the tanker, which had been headed down Swedesboro Road.
Twenty-nine people, including the two drivers, were taken to Underwood-Memorial Hospital in Woodbury with minor injuries, authorities said. One child was taken to Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center in Camden, and another person was taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland.
Between 30 and 35 people were on the bus, police said, and injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to possible broken bones.
The team's vehicle had seat belts, which state law has required on all school buses manufactured since 1992.
"This should be a lesson to kids," Giordano said. "They should all be in seat belts."
(No deaths and no serious injuries, but they did have - seat belts.)
By Kristen A. Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer
School bus, truck collision injures five
October 11, 2003Taylor Anne Cupit, 8, clings to her grandmother, Phyllis Cupit, after her school bus was in a wreck on North New Hope Road in Hermitage.
Eight-year-old Taylor Anne Cupit had glass in her hair.
She hugged her grandmother's waist yesterday as the two walked down North New Hope Road in Hermitage in a light drizzle to get her checked by a doctor.
Yesterday's wreck was the third serious traffic accident involving area school buses in less than a month.
Taylor's bus, which was carrying 18 other students from Dodson Elementary School, was struck by a black pickup that was traveling too fast on the rain-slick road, lost control and crossed over the double yellow line, Metro police said.
Marisa Rowland, 7, of Cape Hope Pass, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with serious injuries to her head. The impact of the crash caused the girl to hit her head on the top of the seat in front of her, police said. The driver of the Dodge Laramie SLT, identified as Gerald Joseph Stanley, 38, of 4701 Lebanon Pike, also was taken to Vanderbilt.
(Should restraints probably would have prevented that.)
The driver of the truck was not wearing his seat belt; the driver of the bus was, Lyons said.
The investigation continued into the night. The injured girl remained in critical condition and the driver of the pickup was stable, a VUMC spokeswoman said.
Three injured after Pickens bus overturns
Friday, September 26, 2003
EASLEY — Two handicapped children received minor injuries when their school bus overturned into a ditch this morning outside Easley.
The children, whose names were not released, were taken to Palmetto Baptist Hospital and released, said Lance Cpl. Jim Dean, Highway Patrol spokesman. The driver of the bus, Alice Barksdale, 60, of Easley, received stitches to her leg and was released, he said.
The children were a boy, 13, and a girl, 11, Dean said. Both were from Dacusville.
All were wearing seat belts, Dean said.
The bus was traveling east on Slickum Road in Pickens County when it ran off the right shoulder of the road, Dean said. The driver overcorrected left.
The bus veered off the left side of the road into a ditch and overturned, Dean said.
© John Boyanoski
Greenville News
April 2, 2003
School bus crash injured students, drivers - LOUISBURG, MO
Twenty people were hurt in a crash between a school bus and a car on Wednesday morning. The students were headed to school at Skyline School near Urbana, about five miles north of the crash.
Passers-by, including some doctors, stopped to help and comfort the children. Many fire department and medical workers rushed to the scene. Emergency workers tended to Bunch first because he was the most seriously injured. Wilken and other school employees also rushed to the scene.
Parents agreed to let their children talk to a reporter about their experiences after their treatment but school officials ordered them not to do so, leaving information about the crash to come from school officials and law officers. The students talked a little to the ER doctors about what happened. "Mostly that they were tumbled around," Cavero said. "Several of them were sleeping at the time and were awakened by it. But, I think, initially, they were just more quiet and observing what was going on, versus telling a lot of stories about it. I'm sure the stories come later.
Helicopter ambulances airlifted three seriously injured people to St. John's Regional Medical Center in Springfield, including Bunch. Ground ambulances took two others to that hospital. One student and Bunch stayed all night at St. John's. The student has back pain. Bunch is critically injured. His three-year-old daughter, who was belted in the front passenger seat but not in a child safety seat, is not injured. Emergency responders found Bunch lying over his daughter to try to shield her from injury.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
School bus rear-ended; four hurt
November 8, 2004
Four people were treated for minor injuries after a school bus was rear-ended at 7:35 Monday morning in front of Evergreen High School.
No one was seriously hurt, according to the Washington State Patrol.
A 2005 Ford Escape driven by Deltarose V. Ellison, 39, of Vancouver, struck the bus, said Trooper Mike Kesler. The bus driver, Christine J. Belcher, 63, of Vancouver, had stopped because a school bus ahead of her was turning left into Evergreen High School's parking lot at 14300 N.E. 18th St., Kesler said.
Ellison, Belcher, another adult on the bus, Susan B. Perry, 50, and one student on the bus, James D. Boltz, 12, of Vancouver, reported minor back and neck injuries. They were treated and released from Southwest Washington Medical Center. There were only two students on the bus.
Everyone involved in the accident was wearing a seat belt, Kesler said.
By MARGARET ELLIS, Columbian staff writer
School bus rolls in crash
May 12, 2004
EDMONTON -- There were some frightening moments for three elementary school students Wednesday morning when the bus they were in rolled after colliding with a sport utility vehicle in southeast Edmonton.
The accident happened a few minutes after 9:00 a.m.
No students were hurt but the drivers of the bus and the SUV were taken to hospital.
Edmonton police traffic investigator Gerry Zatylny says the SUV struck the bus at about 60 kilometres an hour.
He says the children probably escaped injury because they were wearing seatbelts.
He adds that many school buses in Alberta are not equipped with seatbelts.
Police say charges are pending against the SUV driver.
Van, school bus collide, injuring 5, 1 critically
February 2, 2004
NORTHWEST PHOENIX - At least five people were injured Monday, one critically, when a school bus carrying special-needs students and a private van transporting special-needs adults collided.
The nine students aboard the bus, en route to Greenway High School, escaped injury in the crash, which occurred about 8 a.m. at 29th Avenue and Greenway Road.
Investigators will determine whether impairment may have been a factor. The nine students were wearing seat belts, said Carole Sabo, a spokeswoman for the Glendale Union High School District. Seven of them were in class by midmorning, two others were taken home by their parents, she said.
The bus driver, as well as an adult aide, escaped serious injury, Sabo said.
Brent Whiting The Arizona Republic
School bus overturns in St. Louis County
January 12, 2004A bus carrying about 20 students from the city to an elementary school in the Parkway School District flipped over onto its side on Highway 40 this morning, injuring several students and the driver.
The bus driver, identified as Linda Gilley, 50, of St. Louis, told authorities that as she was coming up over a hill near 270, she noticed that the traffic in front of her had slowed or stopped. She swerved to the left to avoid the traffic, then overcorrected and lost control of the bus. The bus turned on the driver's side and slid for several hundred feet, police said.
Fifth grader Rachel Bates, 10, said she was sitting in her assigned seat near the center of the bus when the bus suddenly began to swerve on the highway.
The next moment, the bus had flipped onto its side and was skidding across the pavement.
Rachel said she was thrown across the aisle and into another seat.
As she stood up, she said, she noticed a friend nearby bleeding from a head wound and crying.
Saleema Johnson, 9, a third-grader at the school who suffered a broken left wrist in the accident, said when the bus tipped over on its side she was thrown into the air.
(A seat belt and or harness would have helped prevent this.)
"All I saw was people screaming, all I saw was blood," said Saleema as she left St. Luke's Hospital with her mother, Cora, Monday morning. Moments after the accident, she said, she grabbed a cell phone from another student and called her mother. By Bill Smith - Post-Dispatch