A young St. Stephens, South Carolina (SC), child required hospital treatment for injuries suffered in a traffic accident that occurred on December 8, 2011, and literally across the street from J.K. Gourdin Elementary School on State Highway 45. Fortunately, none of the other 18 students on the bus got hurt.
The wreck involved a car, the bus and a tractor-trailer, and it can be accurately characterized as both a rear-end crash and a head-on collision. The summary of the police report written for the WCSC Live 5 website is worth quoting in full: “The Nissan struck the back of the bus, veered left and the car was struck by a tractor-trailer that was headed in the opposite direction, sandwiching the car between the truck and the bus.”
Unsurprisingly, the at-fault driver of the car also sustained serious injuries. Somewhat more shockingly, the accident occurred because the car’s driver had crossed a double yellow line in order to pass the school bus in a school zone. That illegal lane change and passing maneuver obviously wound up costing the man more than the traffic ticket he surely deserves.
Wrecks involving school buses happen far too often, and drivers of other vehicles on the road are often to blame. To cite one example of this from as recently as mid-November 2011, a pickup truck driver who ran a stop sign in Carteret, North Carolina (NC), hit a high school bus and injured 24 teens. And later that month, a drunk driver on Route 234 in southeastern Maryland (MD), collided with a bus, injuring 15 students.
No driver ever has an excuse for operating a vehicle negligently or dangerously in school zones or around school buses. Any time an irresponsible driver hits a bus, the injuries caused are only part — a significant one, but still only a part — of the damage done. Each school bus crash chips away at the sense of security children and their parents must have in bus transportation.
EJL