The school year has scarcely started and already a Texas school bus crashed into a semi-truck at a traffic light, injuring several children. The bus accident occurred on the way to school, with 63 passengers on board.
After finishing its morning route and picking up a full load of grade school-aged kids, the school bus drove into the back of a flat-bed semi-trailer. The truck was stopped at a red light at the time. It is not clear how fast the bus was moving.
Authorities have not said how many kids got hurt in the crash. While an ambulance took three kids and one teacher to a local hospital for treatment, other students with minor injuries rode on a bus. News photos show emergency responders lifting one passenger out the bus’s emergency exit on a stretcher.
A complete investigation is still in the works but authorities have already concluded that the bus driver apparently did nothing wrong to cause the crash.
Although crashes involving over-sized vehicles like buses and trucks can have catastrophic consequences, wrecks can result from deceptively small causes. In a case like this where an accident happens after a large vehicle fails to stop in time, a simple maintenance issue could have been involved. While a smaller car could respond quickly to brake problems, for example, a bus or truck has a much heavier load to stop. Similarly, a distracted driver can cause far more damage behind the wheel of an enormous vehicle.
Source: 7 KLTV, “Bus Crash Investigation: Driver appears to have done no wrong,” Elizabeth Thomas and Samantha Jordan, Aug. 29, 2012