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Topic: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Childr (Read 145 times)

Rhune
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Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Childr
« on: May 9^th, 2005, 9:19pm »

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Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Children Injured

By BILL DRAPER
Associated Press Writer

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) -- A school bus carrying 53 elementary school children crashed into two vehicles at a busy Liberty intersection Monday morning, killing two people in the vehicles and sending at least three children to area hospitals with life-threatening injuries.

Liberty Police Chief Craig Knouse said police don't know why the southbound bus, which was trying to turn west, slammed into the two eastbound vehicles, which were stopped next to each other while waiting for a stoplight to change in the community about 15 miles north of Kansas City. He said the bus' normal route was to continue south on 291 to Ridgeview.

Knouse identified the victims as David Gleason, Liberty, and David Sandweiss, whose hometown was not immediately available. Their ages were not released. They were the only people in the vehicles.

Police said 23 students were taken to three area hospitals with injuries and the other 15 were released to their parents.

"Obviously it's a worst nightmare, basically," Liberty School Superintendent Scott Taveau said. "This is a community that cares about kids and cares about education. This is a tragedy for this community."

Laura Fitzmaurice, head of the emergency department at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, said 10 children were taken there, including two in critical condition and five hospitalized in serous condition.

The children, who ranged in age from 6-11, suffered head injuries, cuts, scrapes, broken bones and neck injuries, she said.

At Liberty Hospital, spokeswoman Denise Seley said one child underwent emergency surgery and another three had been airlifted from there to Children's Mercy.

The bus driver, whose name was not released, was being treated at a hospital Monday afternoon. Taveau said the driver was a seven-year veteran driver who had "an impeccable record."

He also defended the district's bus safety record. He said there have been only minor school bus fender-benders in the six years he has led the district.

"Our bus drivers, we have a great safety record, accident free," Taveau said. "I would put our school bus drivers against any school bus drivers in the state."

Immediately after the crash, dozens of workers at nearby businesses rushed to the scene to help the children off the bus.

"Many people from the community in the area simply were doing everything they possibly could to comfort the children," Knouse said. "It's something that made you feel so good in such a bad situation."

"We were standing outside on a break when we heard a loud boom and saw a big cloud of dust," said Vickie Whattoff, one of about 20 Hy-Vee workers who responded. "We saw that it was a bus and ran over and started helping kids out."

She said many of the children on the bus, which was carrying kindergartners through fifth-graders, were bleeding and crying for their parents.

"One little boy had his teeth knocked out and he asked me if he was going to be deformed," Whattoff said, her voice quivering as she struggled with her emotions.

Many of the Hy-Vee workers sat with the children, she said, comforting them while waiting for rescue crews to show up.

"Why don't they have safety belts on school buses?" asked Whattoff, a customer service manager whose blue work shirt was smeared with small streaks of blood. "A lot of the injuries were from kids flying forward and hitting the seat in front of them."

Hy-Vee manager Jeff Eslick, who has two children of his own, praised his store's workers for responding to the tragic scene the way they did. He said Monday would be a light day for employees, as the store focuses on "the human element instead of the business element today."

"It's just tragic to think about what the kids went through, and what their parents are going through as they try to find out how their kids are," Eslick said.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

« Last Edit: May 9^th, 2005, 9:20pm by Rhune »

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Rhune
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #1 on: May 9^th, 2005, 9:19pm »

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This is local to me, so it's been in the news all day long and just about every radio station and tv show is up in a heated debate over why seat belts aren't on school busses. :wail:

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Pocket
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #2 on: May 10^th, 2005, 8:33am »

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Accidents happen. We all know that, so why not prepare for the worst and put seat belts in school buses? I have to guess it's the cost. Sad.

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luci
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #3 on: May 10^th, 2005, 11:47am »

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I've asked this same question for years! In fact, ever since the first Grandchild started to school and rides the bus occasionally.

So what if it costs, every school gets anything else
it needs! Why not safety on the way to and from school?

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can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

AoM
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #4 on: May 10^th, 2005, 11:56am »

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I think the other argument against seat belts is safety. With the way busses are designed, if there's an accident the child (supposedly) is pushed forward into a springy seat that has some give, and is soft, so as not to cause injury. Seatbelts would have to go around the lap and in an accident this can cause injury to some internal organs and can also cause the child who is moving forward to be jerked back, causing neck injuries, also, in the event of an accident, students in seatbelts may become trapped, simply by the way the bus is made.

Now a solution to all this would be to install shoulder harness seatbelts as opposed to lap belts, but for smaller children this too could cause more harm than good.

I am not saying i agree one way or the other, just explaining the other side. It's not just a money issue (though that's a big part i reckon)

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luci
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #5 on: May 10^th, 2005, 11:58am »

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When the little ones go forward, their face, mouth
and or neck with hit the guard rail in front of them.
This is not safe at all!

« Last Edit: May 10^th, 2005, 12:00pm by luci »

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Rhune
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #6 on: May 10^th, 2005, 12:10pm »

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In the news they said the majority of the injuries were caused by the children hitting those spongy seat backs. Sad

I can understand that side of the argument and bus accidents like this are few and far between, but seatbelts would have made a big difference in this one.

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Rhune
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #7 on: May 10^th, 2005, 1:12pm »

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May 10, 2005
Accident Raises Issue of Seat Belts for School Buses

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- After onlookers scrambled to pull injured children from a school bus involved in a fatal crash near Kansas City, the question came up time and again: Why aren't seat belts required on school buses?

Two people in cars were killed Monday morning in Liberty, Mo., when a school bus carrying more than 50 children crashed into their vehicles. Twenty-three children were hurt. Two remained in critical condition Tuesday.

The grade schoolers were tossed from their seats, suffering injuries ranging from bumps and bruises to broken bones and internal damage. Vickie Whattoff, a grocery store worker who rushed to help the children, wondered if some of the injuries could have been prevented if the bus had seat belts.

"I just don't understand," she said.

But the federal agency that oversees school bus safety cites one study after another showing that seat belts are unlikely to help in a serious bus accident.

"We've got close to a half-million buses on the highway driving four-and-a-half billion miles a year, and we have fewer than seven school passenger fatalities nationwide," said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "It's probably close to eight times safer riding on a school bus than it is riding in a passenger car."

Tyson said it is difficult to design shoulder-lap belts to fit children of all sizes. He noted that the same bus that takes kindergartners to school in the morning may transport high schoolers later in the day. Also difficult is persuading 40 or 50 rambunctious kids to wear their belts properly.

Meanwhile, Tyson said, school buses are designed to lessen impact. In a wreck, a process called compartmentalization provides a safety "cocoon" for children. Seat backs are cushioned and designed to give upon impact, softening the blow if a child is thrown forward.

Three states -- New York, New Jersey and Florida -- require seat belts on new full-sized buses. Between 300 and 400 other school districts nationwide require seat belts even though their states don't.

It isn't cheap. The cost of fitting a full-sized school bus is $1,500 to $1,800. And if shoulder-lap belts are installed, only two kids fit on a bench instead of three, meaning additional buses may be needed.

Scott Taveau, superintendent of the Liberty School District, said it was too early to know if belts would have helped in Monday's accident. He wasn't sure if the district would consider seat belts for its buses.

The National Coalition for School Bus Safety has long called for seat belts. Shoulder restraints are preferred, but lap belts would be better than nothing, said Alan Ross, a Connecticut dentist who leads the coalition.

"These kids on the bus would have been a lot better of if they had been restrained instead of bouncing around like a pinball," Ross said. "Compartmentalization is grossly inadequate."

The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services said it supports lap-shoulder belts for school buses, but the second-best choice is no belt at all. Lap belts without a shoulder harness tend to cause even greater injuries, according to the organization that oversees state directors of public school bus services.

"Every study looked at repeatedly says compartmentalization works and works well, but it's not perfect," said Charlie Gauthier, executive director of the association. "The only way to make it better is with lap-shoulder belts."

Ross worries that the lack of seat belts on school buses sends a bad message to children, a message he believes shows up in teen driving death statistics.

"We give them an inappropriate mixed message as children. We tell them it's important to buckle up, then they don't have to on the bus. They're totally confused," he said.

In April, one child was killed and 14 injured when a bus carrying grade schoolers collided with a trash truck in Arlington, Va.

In November, a freshman at Royal Palm Beach High School in Florida died when her bus collided with a pickup truck and rolled. Diana Kautz was ejected from the bus.

The most recent fatality involving a school bus passenger in Missouri was in February 2004 in Bowling Green, about 100 miles north of St. Louis. A school bus was traveling at highway speed when it rear-ended a stopped asphalt truck, killing a ninth-grade girl and a highway worker.

In October 2003, a tractor-trailer collided with a school bus near Shields, Kan., in the western part of the state, killing a 6-year-old boy.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Rhune
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Re: Bus Accident Kills Two Adults; More Than 20 Ch
« Reply #8 on: May 10^th, 2005, 1:14pm »

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I think harness style seatbelts is an excellent suggestion, like the kind required in baby seats or race cars. That would provide a solution to the sizing issues that come with lap belts as well as provide a superior restraint in the event of a crash.

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