SMITHFIELD – A school bus accident sent nine students to the hospital.
Just past 8:00am Monday, a Johnston County school bus driver traveled off the pavement to the right on Steven’s Chapel Road, then overcorrected and drove off the left side of the road. The bus swerved, causing the rear of the bus to strike a large pine tree.
Nine of the 24 students on board bus number 191 from Princeton Elementary School were transported to area hospitals, one with serious injuries. Other students were either picked up by their parents or transported by ambulance to the school to be reunited with parents.
This is the second school bus accident in the county in less than a week resulting in student injuries.
According to the NC State Highway Patrol, the bus driver will be charged in this accident. No other vehicles were involved.
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This story has been updated to correct the number of students injured
It’s been a while since I have been on a school bus, but I have wondered about this for a long time; why, with the precious passengers a school bus carries, aren’t buses equipped with seat belts?
There are several articles out on that subject, but the short of it is buses are built pretty sturdy, the seats act like shock absorbers and seat belts would slow down the egress of children in case the bus was to become submerged or catch fire.
They do have seat belts but they are optional to use.
The driver has a seat belt but not the passengers.
Seatbelts are available, but it is a very costly expense for the district. Also, especially for younger children, they could even have unintended consequences if there was a need to rapidly evacuate the bus, like fire or submersion into a pond or river.
It seemed there were less issues when high school students drove the buses.
I had to walk to school and I lived in Central NY where we had a lot of snow and rain. I wish I was able to ride a bus.
I didn’t know that was a thing
Bracey’s Busses
Many of the drivers are not properly trained. I watched ******** ***** put a lady on a bus who said she wasn’t comfortable. The training to get a CDL for a bus is inadequate and JCPS does not off further training. These are people who have never driven a bus. You should know you may have a driver who isn’t properly prepared or comfortable driving your kids on that bus. The job becomes 100x more difficult with the rowdy students who refuse to follow any rules. JCPS should answer to the lack of training and you should hold them accountable when they try to weasel their way through an explanation.
I know that your not my sister but this is my sister’s exact name
I’ve notified Guinness Book.
Privatize bus transportation
Bottom line is prayers for all the kids to recover.
Bottomer line….an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Do like Wake and Wayne county schools do, hire an outside company to drive the bus. That is why there are so many Teacher assistant positions open because TA’s do not want to drive a bus.
You are so right. My daughter applied for a ‘still unfilled’ position at a local school, one she & her sister both attended, but they told her the position required the person to drive a bus. She doesn’t feel comfortable driving a bus. More importantly, she knows she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the highway AND on the children on the bus.
Exactly. I have looked for a position that doesn’t require that I drive a bus and unless you are a teacher I haven’t seen one with Johnston Schools.
People that leave their trees out without a leash really make me mad. I mean, these trees just jump out in front of you either that or these trees make turns without using their signal or try to pass on the wrong side. We need to ban trees.
My friends were on that bus,six out of nine of them were my friends.One of my friends broke his Fermer and his head got cut open,he was sitting in the very back and his twin has serious brain damage.My other friend broke his arm and bussed his lip open.
When I drove a bus in high school for Johnston County Schools,(83,84,85) the maximum speed was 35 mph. There was 1/2 the traffic on the road then as there is now. Bus speed now is 45 mph . 10 mph makes a big difference in everything. Longer stopping distance results in more property damage and child injury. They need to move the speed back to 35mph. Speed is number 1 factor in driver at fault collision.