Alabama Fatal Crash Brings
Safety Review, Investigation

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A horrific pre-Thanksgiving crash prompted Alabama state agencies to form task forces to review school bus safety policy and procedure and to determine how best to support the Huntsville school district that lost four students.

On the morning of Nov. 20, a school bus carrying 40 high school students from their main campus to a nearby technical education center went over a cement guardrail and crashed onto its nose about 30 feet below the interstate. An initial investigation by Huntsville police and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) suggests that another student driving to the technical education center alongside the bus gradually lost control of his Toyota Celica and eventually swerved into the bus’ lane. At this writing, investigators were unsure if the car actually struck the bus.

our students died and at least 12 students onboard and the driver were hospitalized in the resulting wreck.

Within a week of the accident, the task force formed by State Superintendent of Education Joe B. Morton had already met twice to review safety policies. Visiting the wreck site, Gov. Bob Riley made a similar pledge for a swift review of school bus safety procedures.
Riley said the Alabama Department of Transportation will investigate the crash and has encouraged a renewed debate over the installation of seat belts, which is presumed to be the 3-point lap/shoulder variety.

While both group had yet to make any policy suggestions, police and NTSB investigators who spent the Thanksgiving weekend at the crash site have concluded the driver of the car was not driving dangerously but lost control due to a mechanical malfunction. NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said engineers from Toyota planned to begin examining the car last month.

Early in the investigation, officials were unsure why the school bus driver was found on the interstate above the crash site. NTSB Investigator in Charge Gary Van Etten explained the ejection, noting that the driver had not been wearing his seat belt and was thrown through the bus loading doors by the force of impact. The driver told investigators he has no memory of the accident and investigators. Neither police nor NTSB investigators faulted the driver.

The NTSB investigation suggests that seating position may have also been a determining factor in injury severity, and had he not been ejected, the driver would likely have been killed as well. According to Holloway, the four girls that were killed sat within the first two rows. He added that passengers sitting farther forward on the bus generally suffered from more serious injuries than their classmates sitting towards the rear of the bus. An official NTSB docket will be released within the year.

Long before the NTSB had closed its initial investigation, opinion and editorial pages across the country had called for seat belt installations in school buses. Articles in the Knight-Ridder papers, the Miami Herald, the Baltimore Sun, and reports on CNN.com and CBS Evening News focused on the fact that, like most school buses, the Huntsville bus did not have occupant restraint systems. While most of the media coverage recognized the rarity of this sort of accident and acknowledged the relative infrequency of school bus fatalities, many cited the accident and a recent American Academy of Pediatrics study (see page XX) as reason to expand school bus safety belt installation.

The American School Bus Council posted a swift reaction to the crash on their site. Lamenting the loss of life and injury, the announcement expressed the sense of loss shared by parents, districts, and the school bus industry. Council co-directors Pete Japikse and Donald Tudor articulated the industry’s continued efforts to improve passenger safety but stressed the industry’s safety record.

“Our first priority in the school bus industry is the safety of our nation’s children, and the school transportation industry, safety regulators and state pupil transportation officials continually look for ways to improve safety in the design, maintenance and operation of yellow school buses,” Japikse and Tudor said in a prepared statement. “Although accidents do occur, the yellow school bus is still the safest way to transport children to and from school.”