National
Transportation Safety Board
Highway Accident Report
PB87-916208
NTSB/HAR-87/03/SUM
Report date: September 30, 1987
Lincolnton,
North Carolina -- February 17, 1986
HIGHWAY
ACCIDENT/INCIDENT SUMMARY
Type
of Occurrence: School bus rollover
Date
and Time: February 17, 1986, 5:15 eastern standard time
Location:
North Carolina rural paved road No. 1187, about 4.2 miles west of Lincolnton,
Lincoln County, North Carolina
Type
of Operation: Public pupil transportation
School
bus Operator: Lincoln County Board of Education, Lincolnton, North Carolina
School
bus Type: 1972 International chassis and a 48- passenger Thomas Built
school bus body (a prestandard school bus)
Persons
on Board: 40; 16-year-old student driver and 39 student passengers,
ages 12 to 17
Injuries:
Driver--minor; passengers--3 moderate and 36 minor
School
Bus Damage: Moderate crush to roof and both sides, windshield and four
window panes broken, no interior damage
Other
Damage or Injury: None
About
3 p.m. on February 17, 1986, a Lincoln County Board of Education school
bus departed a Lincoln County high school complex with a 16-year-old
busdriver and 39 passengers, ages 12 to 17, aboard. The bus was on its
regular afternoon schedule transporting students to their homes in rural
area west of Lincolnton, North Carolina. The route traversed rural paved
roads over rolling terrain for a distance of 42 miles from the school.
The weather was clear and the roadways were dry.
About 4 miles from the school, the bus traveled north
onto an 18- foot-wide, two-lane, paved roadway bordered by grassy shoulders.
Some 2 miles later, the bus began to descend a 1,100-foot-long, 7 percent
grade. Midway into the downgrade, the roadway traversed a 400-foot-
long, 9 degree left curve. At the bottom of the grade, the roadway narrowed
to a one-lane bridge crossing a small creek. Woods along the west side
of the roadway obstructed a southbound motorist's view of the bridge
until actually entering the curve. The speed limit was 36 miles per
hour.
According to the school bus driver, all the student
passengers were seated and orderly. Three friends (students) of the
school bus driver were seated behind her on the left front passenger
seat.
The
school bus driver said that as she was negotiating the downhill curve,
an automobile was crossing the bridge and approaching the school bus
from the opposite direction at a high rate of speed. The three students
and the driver simultaneously saw the oncoming automobile and perceived
it as a hazard. The students yelled out a warning and instinctively
the driver began braking and steering right. The driver stated that
her apprehension about the approaching car was intensified by the admonitions
from the passengers. The right side wheels of the bus dropped from the
pavement onto the grassy shoulder, and the bus skidded about 50 feet
forward. The school bus driver then steered the vehicle left in an attempt
to return the right wheels to the pavement. However, she lost control
of the bus, and it crossed over the pavement to the west shoulder. The
school bus driver attempted to regain control by steering the bus sharply
to the right. The bus veered right and began to recross the pavement
in a southeasterly direction. When the vehicle was near the center of
the roadway, it rolled one complete turn counterclockwise about its
longitudinal axis, moved downgrade, and came to rest upright on the
pavement near the south end of the bridge facing north. There was no
contact with the automobile.
None of the school bus occupants were ejected. The
driver's seat was equipped with a lapbelt (1 Beam 300), which she was
wearing when the accident sequence began. The lap belt released during
the accident; however, the driver said she remained upright in relation
to her seat as the bus came to rest. The student passengers were thrown
about the occupant compartment by the forces exerted on the bus during
rollover, but all exited the bus unassisted through either the right
side or rear emergency door. Three occupants sustained moderate injuries;
a clavicle fracture, a single metatarsus bone fracture, and a posterior
skull laceration. The driver and the other 36 occupants sustained minor
injuries. All occupants were treated at local hospital emergency room
and released the same day.
As a result of the accident, the police cited the
driver for "Exceeding a Safety Speed." A check of the State of North
Carolina drivers license records revealed no other violations or accident
notations on her traffic record.
A postcrash examination of the bus revealed no mechanical
defects that could be considered causal to the accident. Damage to the
bus consisted of moderate crush damage to the roof and both sides, a
broken windshield, and four broken side window panes.
The 1972 International school bus was equipped with
manual steering, booster-powered hydraulic brakes, and a manual transmission.
It was a replacement school bus assigned to the driver on February 14
because minor repairs were being performed on her regularly assigned
bus. A 1981 International school bus equipped with power steering, air
mechanical brakes, and an automatic transmission was regularly assigned
to the driver. Both school buses were equipped with a governor, which
limited the speed of the vehicle to 35 miles per hour.
The 16-year-old driver, an 11th grade high school
student, was certified to drive a public school bus in the State of
North Carolina. She had been driving automobiles less than 2 years and
school buses less than 4 months. The school bus driver completed a State-approved
high school driver training course in the ninth grade. On her 15th birthday,
she was issued a North Carolina Learner's Permit, and a year later,
a Class C (Operators) drivers license. On October 31, 1985, almost 7
months after her 16th birthday, she was issued a School Bus Certificate
after completing a School Bus Driver Training Course. The State administered
course consisted of 2 days of classroom and 3 days of behind-the-wheel
instruction. The behind-the-wheel phase of instruction was administered
to three other trainees who alternately shared the driving task. A variety
of school buses were used in the training; some were equipped with features
similar to those on the accident bus and some with features of the driver's
regularly assigned bus. The accident driver was a substitute school
bus driver for 2 weeks following her certification, and on November
20, 1985, was assigned as a regular driver on the accident route. Except
for one occasion on which she drove the accident bus, the busdriver
had driven the bus regularly assigned to her.
Except for a short period during training, the busdriver
had little experience with a bus equipped with manual features. She
stated that she felt "uncomfortable" driving the manual transmission
accident bus. She stated that she experienced "jamming" the brake pedal
when stopping, and that she had to steer "it hard all the time" to maintain
proper alignment on the highway.
The school bus driver reported that she previously
had been confronted with a perceived hazard, such as an oncoming vehicle,
and had driven her automobile off the pavement. On that occasion, she
slowed the automobile and steered it back to the pavement without mishap.
She said that, in retrospect, she should have executed the same maneuver
successfully in this instance as well.
The rollover of the bus was precipitated by the school
bus driver when she reacted spontaneously on her attempt to bring the
bus back onto the roadway. In doing so, she oversteered to the left
lane ad lost vehicle control. Her initial decision to steer away from
the oncoming car and to brake was an instinctive reaction which could
be characterized as common to all drivers. Her decision to return to
the pavement was appropriate, the execution was not. The driver stated
that she felt "uncomfortable" driving the accident bus. She admittedly
became apprehensive when she saw the oncoming car at the bridge and
the student began yelling at her. The school bus driver's oversteering
under duress can, in part, be attributed to her inexperienced as a driver.
A 1974 University of North Carolina report, which
analyzed school bus accidents in North Carolina for the 1971-72 school
year by driver, 1/concluded that:
...there
was a significant difference between drivers age 16 through 20 and those
age 21 and older, with the younger drivers having a higher accident
rate. However, it was further found that it was the 16- year-old drivers
accounting for this high rate. There were no significant differences
between the accident rates of drivers age 17 through 20 and those 21
and older. Because further analysis indicated that the poor performance
of the 16-year-old driver is probably attributed to their inexperience,
it is recommended that increased attention be given to the selection
and training of these beginning drivers.
The
report also recommended that school district "license more school bus
drivers at age 17 rather than at 16, provided they have had a full year
driving experience at that time."
A 1980 University of North Carolina study of 61 school
bus accidents in three North Carolina counties for school years 1977-79
2/concluded that:
...driving
left of center crashes involved high school age bus drivers exclusively.
On a statewide basis, younger drivers are also overrepresented in this
type crash, though not so dramatically. It is recommended that, during
the more individual on-the-road phase of initial training, younger drivers
receive both special emphasis on the hazards of driving left center
on ways to avoid so in potential conflict situations.
1/ Judith McMichael, "School Bus Accidents and Driver Age," Highway
Safety Research Center, University of North Carolina, December 1974.
2/ Daniel, Robert B., Lacy, John H., and Orr, Beverly T., "Investigation
of 61 School Bus Crashed in Three North Carolina Counties," Highway
Safety Research Center, University of North Carolina, January 1980.
It is reasonable to believe that adult drivers, because
of their lengthy experience and maturity, would have reacted more deliberately
and maintained the stability of this accident bus when it was returned
to the roadway.
The Safety Board investigated a similar accident involving
a rollover of a school bus that was driven by a 17-year-old student
driver near Jefferson, North Carolina, on March 13, 1985. 3/ The Safety
Board determined that in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama
the 16- and 17-year-old group of school bus drivers is overrepresented
in school bus accident rates per million miles driven when compared
to the 18- year-old and older group of school bus drivers. As a result
of its investigation, the Safety Board recommended that the State Director
of Pupil Transportation of Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina:
H-85-56
Discontinue
the practice of hiring 16- and 17-year-old school bus drivers.
In
response to Safety Recommendation H-85-56, the North Carolina State
Board of Education has submitted a budget request to the North Carolina
Legislature, which includes funding for adult drivers on all public
school buses. The Safety Board is holding the recommendation in an "Open-Acceptable"
status. The facts uncovered during the investigation of this accident
provide further suppor year-old and older group of school bus drivers.
As a result of its investigation, the Safety Board recommended that
the State Director of Pupil Transportation of Alabama, North Carolina,
and ¬©·¸/d driver in an attempt to keep the school bus on the
roadway after encountering a car coming toward her over a single lane
bridge at a high speed. The oversteering resulted in loss of control
of the vehicle and its subsequent overturn. Contributing to this accident
was the 16-year-old driver's inexperience with operating the bus, as
well as her inexperience operating a manual transmission bus.
3/ Highway
Accident Report--"School bus rollover, State Route 88, near Jefferson,
North Carolina, March 13, 1985" (NTSB/HAR-85/05).
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