Pre-School bus involved in minor accident

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third incident in two weeks

A McCreary County pre-school bus was involved in a minor traffic incident Tuesday morning while transporting students home from school.

According to Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Ridener, the incident occurred before noon at the intersection of U.S. 27 and KY 1561 in Strunk.

According to statements from both divers involved, the bus had pulled up to the stop sign on 1651 behind a Jeep, driven by Joe West of Huntsville. West told the officer he was waiting to turn on to the highway when a truck towing a trailer made a turn off 27 in front of him. West stated it looked like the driver of the truck hadn’t made a wide enough turn and it appeared the trailer was going to strike his vehicle.

West started to back up to allow more room, but failed to notice the bus behind him. His rear bumper struck the front end of the bus, causing very little damage.

Neither of the drivers, the bus monitor or any of the five students on board were injured.

As per School District policy the parents of the children were informed of the incident, and many responded to the scene to pick up their child.

Acting Superintendent Aaron Anderson confirmed Wednesday the incident was the third involving a school bus in the past two weeks.

Later Tuesday afternoon the same bus involved in the earlier incident was again backed in to by a driver in a personal vehicle in Pine Knot. Anderson stressed in both cases the driver of the bus was not at fault.

On May 1 a minor collision between two McCreary County busses also occurred, Anderson stated. School children were on the busses when it happened.

In that incident two busses were passing each other on a narrow road when the side mirrors on each bus collided. None of the passengers were injured and the busses resumed their normal operations.

Anderson spoke with Donna Stevens, Transportation Director for the school district, regarding the incident and learned that while some of the District’s protocol was followed after the incident, specifically mandatory drug testing for the drivers, parents were not informed of the incident as per policy.

Anderson stated steps were being taken to inform the parents of the students involved, and to ensure proper procedure is followed in the future.