A 5-year-old died after being hit by a Granbury Independent School District school bus.
Granbury ISD released a statement confirming the death Monday of an Emma Roberson Early Learning Academy student. The student’s name was initially not released but a second statement released by the district indicated the family of Exodus Crockett granted permission. A vigil will be held March 20 with the boy’s viewing and funeral scheduled for March 21.
The district said it directly communicated with all the families of students that were on the bus when the incident occurred and is closely working with local law enforcement.
Authorities said the school bus was traveling northeast on Pecos River Drive when the driver stopped to pick up students. As the driver started to pull away, a child ran up from the right front side of the bus and was struck. No other students were injured.
“I know you share in the devastation of this loss and may have many questions. We all have the expectation that students will be safe on our buses and in our district. We are already working to fully understand the situation and will share more information after we have had the time to investigate the incident,” said Granbury ISD Superintendent Courtney Morawski.
It is unclear if the school bus driver is expected to face charges. The incident remains under investigation.
Amanda Davila was sentenced to three years in prison for the death of 6-year-old Fajr Williams, who fatally choked on a Somerset County, New Jersey school bus while wearing an improperly secured safety harness.
Davila faced up to 20 years in prison for the charges of aggravated and reckless manslaughter. Instead, a jury found her guilty of child endangerment on Jan. 13. On March 7, a judge sentenced her to three years in prison.
Davila, who was 27 at the time of the Julu 17, 2023 incident, testified in her own defense during the trial and claimed she was at fault but only partially. The defense argued that a family member of Williams improperly buckled her into her wheelchair that day. Davila also reportedly testified during the trial that she wasn’t trained properly on wheelchair securement and made a mistake. However, the school bus contractor she worked for provided monthly training sessions.
Davila’s lawyer said she shared responsibility with the family, who should have ensured the young girl was secured properly. Davila was the assigned bus monitor to Williams, who had Emanuel syndrome, was non-verbal and in a wheelchair. She was being transported to an extended school year program at Claremont Elementary School in Franklin Park New Jersey.
As School Transportation News reported at the time, Williams was strangled by her wheelchair’s harness on the bus ride. The student reportedly slumped forward in her wheelchair after a series of bumps. She was wearing a 4-point harness that secured her to the wheelchair, but ultimately became too tight around her neck, blocking her airway.
Video from the bus ride showed Davila seated in front of Williams, on her cellphone and wearing earbuds, a violation of policies and procedures.
A school bus driver is dead after a crash involving two school buses in New York.
The Oneida County Sheriff’s Office released a statement March 7 confirming the fatal crash between two Holland Patent School District school buses.
According to the statement, one of the school buses operated by Michael J. Page, 57, was transporting three students when he crossed the center line into the path of an oncoming school bus for the same district.
The second bus, operated by Jean C. Marsden, 58, was transporting two students in the second Holland Patent School District school bus.
Marsden was pronounced dead at the scene. The two students on her bus were transported to Wynn Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Page was also transported to the hospital for a foot injury, and the three students on his bus were all evaluated at the scene before being signed over to their parents.
The crash is still under investigation. But authorities indicated the weather conditions of wind-blown snow appeared to be a factor.
An 8-year-old girl was fatally struck by a car after she was dropped off by her school bus. Family and friends gathered for a candlelight vigil, reported Fox 26.
The incident reportedly occurred on Feb.24, when Emmanuela Aifuwa was dropped off by her Alief Independent School District bus at her apartment complex.
According to the news report, Aifuwa was speaking to a friend across the street when she ran into the roadway. It is unknown why she ran into the roadway. Surveillance footage shows the motorist, who was not identified in this writing, did not have time to stop the vehicle before hitting the child. The girl was reportedly transported to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries.
On Wednesday night, family, friends and community members gathered for a candlelight vigil to honor Aifuwa. The vigil reportedly took place at the scene of the incident.
The child’s mother, identified as Susie, told local news reporters that Aifuwa was her only child, and she wishes her daughter would just walk up to her and say, “Mama, it’s just a prank.” Aifuwa was described as bright and happy by loved ones.
According to local news reports the driver of the vehicle involved in the incident remained at the scene and is cooperating with investigators. They reportedly did not show signs of impairment or intoxication and were not traveling at an excessive speed. The investigation is ongoing.
A crash involving a school bus and a pickup truck left one dead following a medical emergency, reported Fox 8.
The incident occurred Feb. 24. According to the article, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies discovered a pickup truck with a sole occupant and a school bus with a driver and 32 students on board. Only one student reported an ankle injury, but they were checked out and released on scene.
Investigation into the crash reportedly revealed that the bus had stopped to let students off, with a 2023 Chevy Silverado stopping behind. Witnesses on scene say the bus turned off the flashing red lights and started driving. However, the truck accelerated and ran into the rear of the bus.
The article states the truck was driven by 62-year-old Eric Brandewie. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers stated via the article that the family of Brandewie shared he had called his wife just minutes before the incident, reporting chest pains and profuse sweating. He was on his way to his daughter’s house so they could go to the hospital together.
Authorities said they believe the cause of the crash is the result of a medical emergency, but the investigation is ongoing until an autopsy is completed.
A school bus driver was killed after he was struck by a school bus in his district’s bus garage.
On Tuesday afternoon, New Jersey’s Maple Shade School District’s Superintendent Beth Norcia, released a statement confirming the death of a staff member, identified by police as 85-year-old Jack Hohwald.
The incident occurred around 3:30 p.m., when Hohwald was standing outside of his bus at the district’s bus garage, when he was hit by another district driver. The Maple Shade Police responded to the scene. According to local news, the driver of the striking bus remained at the scene, no chargers have been filed so far. The incident remains under investigation.
Norcia said via the statement that classes were cancelled on Wednesday. The Burlington County Crisis Response Team and counselors will be available for the staff and students the rest of the week.
A child and an elderly person were hit by a school bus in Brooklyn, New York, while crossing the street, reported PIX 11 News.
The incident reportedly took place on Friday morning at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Buffalo Avenue in Crown Heights.
According to the news report, the 56-year-old bus driver was turning onto Buffalo Avenue when he struck the 79-year-old and 9-year-old, who were not identified at this writing. The pedestrians were crossing the street, but it was not disclosed if they were in a crosswalk or not.
Both the child and adult were rushed to a nearby hospital in unknown conditions, it is unclear if they are related. The driver reportedly stayed on the scene and no arrests were made at this time. The incident remains under investigation.
As the 2025 year commences, students were hit — and one was killed — while walking to their bus stops in Florida communities.
On Jan. 10, a teenager later identified as Maslin Mooney was a victim of a hit and run while walking to his bus stop, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook. The Sheriff’s office stated that Mooney was discovered by a passerby at approximately 6:45 a.m. Lifesaving efforts were immediately initiated, and he was transported to a trauma center by air ambulance.
The Sheriff’s Office added that the preliminary investigation revealed Mooney was walking to his bus stop — the scheduled pick up was at 6:08 a.m. — but never made it to the location. As of Jan. 12, the Sheriff’s Office stated investigators identified and interviewed the suspect and seized the vehicle.
First Baptist Church of Hastings stated via its Facebook page, that Mooney was on the ground unconscious until a citizen discovered him and called first responders. His injuries included two broken legs, the right tibia and left femur, that required surgery, a broken right wrist, extensive dental damage, and a brain bleed. He is expected to remain in the hospital for four to six weeks with a recovery window of four to six months.
As of Jan. 16, the church posted Facebook update that Mooney was making remarkable progress and is improving by “leaps and bounds.” He has since moved out of the ICU and was scheduled to be transferred to a rehabilitation facility.
Meanwhile, about 32 miles North in Jacksonville, Florida, an Atlantic Coast High School student died on Jan. 17, after being struck by a vehicle while trying to get her school bus stop. A GoFundMe page created for the family of Alondra Martinez, 16, said the girl was crossing the street toward her school bus stop when a speeding car struck her. The motorist who hit Martinez reportedly stopped and took her to a nearby medical facility, then stayed there and called the police.
Martinez reportedly died in the hospital from her injuries.
No information had been posted on the Duval County Public Schools website or the Sheriff’s Office regarding the incident. However, local media reported that it was unknown if Martinez was walking in a marked crosswalk.
Jacksonville.com reported that the night before Martinez was killed, First Coast News spoke with Superintendent Christopher Bernier about a new safety campaign, “Be safe, be seen,” which was launched due to the number of motorists hitting students as they made their way to and from school.
“We’ve had three fatalities this year with young people being hit to and from school,” Bernier stated via the article.
Earlier this week in Tampa, Florida, an 11-year-old died after being hit by a car while getting off a school bus. A local news article states the girl had just exited the school bus and was walking alongside the road when she was hit. The unidentified student was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries and died Tuesday night.
A kindergartener from the Hamilton School District in Wisconsin was hit and killed by a school bus on the morning of Jan.2, just two days into the new year.
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department released a statement confirming the death of the student amid a fatal bus incident.
According to the statement, the Waukesha County Communications Center was alerted to an incident in which a kindergartener had been struck by a school bus in the Silver Spring Intermediate School parking lot.
The bus was transporting students when the incident occurred. The Kindergartener, whose name was not disclosed at this writing, was at Silver Spring Intermediate School awaiting transfer to a shuttle bus to be taken to Willow Springs Learning Center. That’s when the school bus struck and killed the student.
Authorities say the cause of the incident is still under investigation, and the bus driver is cooperating fully with the investigation. This is a developing story.
The stnonline.com website was abuzz in 2024. Learn what news reports student transporters were most interested in and hear Tony and Ryan’s analysis on what the school bus industry can learn about safety and training from the tragic and noteworthy moments.
A mother in Arizona was charged with aggravated assault after hitting her daughter’s school bus driver. A video of the incident shows the mother yelling and assaulting the driver. Other parents who were at the bus stop stated that the women complained the bus driver had not stopped in the right location. The woman faced a single count of felony aggravated assault on a school employee.
The driver of a concrete truck that caused a fatal school bus crash in Texas admitted to taking cocaine on three hours of sleep before the incident. The incident resulted in the death of pre-kindergarten student Ulises Rodriguez Montoya. Dash cam footage from the school district showed the incident was caused by the concrete truck veering across the center line and colliding with the bus.
An 11-year-old from Maine was facing charges of terrorizing after authorities were forced to evacuate a school bus due to a threat with a suspicious device. Students had reported witnessing another student showing and talking about a suspicious device and immediately the Maine state police and bomb squad were called. Authorities later confirmed that the suspicious device found in the sixth grader’s home was not an explosive.
Blue Bird is the first school bus builder to install three-point seat belts and a bus driver airbag as standard equipment, starting in the fall of 2024. (Photo courtesy of Blue Bird.)
School bus manufacturer Blue Bird made history as the first OEM to announce lap/shoulder seatbelts as standard safety technology in all its vehicles. Blue Bird, in partnership with IMMI, will begin equipping new school buses with three-point seatbelts for all student passengers.
The company also announced the implementation of other safety improvements such as high-intensity LED lighting on the outside and inside of the bus, high-resolution front and rear cameras, lighted stop-arms and school bus signs, and strobe lights. More standard equipment Blue Bird is touting as the industry’s first technology is the introduction of 4Front, a steering wheel deployed airbag to protect the head and torso of school bus drivers during a crash.
A Minnesota school bus driver was arrested after he was accused of driving his bus while intoxicated with students on board. The 44-year-old man allegedly blew double the legal limit when tested. He was arrested by authorities for suspicion of second-degree DWI. The incident was under investigation.
A school bus crash with a semi-trailer in Illinois resulted in five fatalities, three of which were children. The semi-truck driver and the school bus driver were also killed in the crash. Amid the crash, both vehicles were engulfed in flames.
Two Dutchtown Elementary School students were left inside their school bus for hours after they fell asleep. One of the children’s aunt demanded the district recheck the bus after her niece was nowhere to be found after the child was supposed to be dropped off. A driver later showed up with two children who had been left behind on the school bus.
An update on the New York State stop-arm camera law closes a loophole that previously let motorists off the hook despite being caught on a camera passing a stopped school bus. Now, the law originally passed in 2019 allowing stop-arm cameras on school buses reportedly includes a “rebuttable presumption” that the vehicle being passed is a school bus and meets all requirements of being such a vehicle. The school bus must have a valid inspection certification, which is required for every New York state school bus, to meet all requirements.
A 9-year-old boy in Florida was seriously injured after being struck by an SUV while waiting for his school bus. Several children had boarded the bus at the time of the incident. The boy was airlifted to a local hospital and then referred to a children’s hospital with several road rash scrapes across his body.
A three-way crash in Ohio resulted in a 12-year-old student being struck after exiting his school bus. The child was reportedly thrown through the air, landed in a yard and was flown to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in an unknown condition. Police said neither alcohol nor drugs appeared to play a role in the crash.
A 7-year-old boy from London, Ontario, was struck and fatally injured in a collision as he was getting off his school bus, reported CBC News.
The incident reportedly occurred on Monday afternoon, when the boy identified as Dante Caranci, was exiting his school bus and a passing vehicle struck him.
According to the news report, Caranci was rushed to London’s Victoria Hospital following the crash and was pronounced dead on Tuesday. London Police have not released many details of the crash.
A GoFundMe launched to help cover funeral costs and any other expenses had reportedly raised more than $91,000 as of Wednesday.
Police have not stated if charges are pending in the collision, and few details have been made public. Judy Madzia, the boy’s grandmother, told local news reporters that she had not seen any police report and was still unsure exactly what had happened.
Authorities have reportedly asked anyone with a dash cam who may have been traveling through the area between 3:45 p.m. and 4:05 p.m. to contact them.
School bus crashes are a concerning issue that requires close attention. Statistics show that these types of incidents occur more often than one might expect, with thousands of crashes reported each year across the United States.
Recent statistics compiled from various sources reveal an alarming trend of school bus crashes and school transportation-related traffic incidents over the last decade.
According to an analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety (NHTSA) data, Brumley Law Firm found that approximately 976 fatal school bus crashes led to over 1,000 deaths and around 132,000 injuries, spanning the years 2013 through 2022. States like Texas and Florida emerged as hotspots for these fatalities. Texas reported 75 school transportation-related crashes and 87 resulting fatalities, while Florida reported 74 crashes and 76 fatalities. The top five was rounded out be Georgia, which experienced 65 deaths in 60 crashes, New York with 59 deaths in as many crashes, and Pennsylvania with 59 deaths in 53 crashes.
Harris County, Texas and Kings County, New York experienced the most school-transportation related crashes between 2013-2022 with 11 each. Cook County, Illinois, Los Angeles County, California, and Maricopa County, Arizona each had nine crashes.
Approximately 111 people are killed and 13,200 people are injured in school bus incidents each year, according to NHTSA. However, statistics reveal that occupants of other vehicles are more likely to become fatally injured in a school bus crash, rather than the occupants of the school bus. Only 11 fatalities on average occur on the school bus, to students or their driver, compared to about 76 occupants in other vehicles. Of the 111 fatalities in the school bus, the NHTSA data indicates 61 were student passengers and 50 were school bus drivers.
Source: Brumley Law Firm analysis of NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting SystemSource: Brumley Law Firm analysis of NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System
Though the school bus itself provides a reliable, secure way for transporting students, NHTSA says it remains concerned about the lingering problem of illegal school bus passing by motorists, which undermines this safety net and demands concerted efforts.
A child was fatally struck by a car while waiting for a school bus in River Hills, Wisconsin, in a Thursday incident that was deemed unintentional.
River Hills Police Department Chief Michael Gaynor told STN in a statement that the 8-year-old child was waiting for the bus and crossed in front of the vehicle without its driver knowing. The driver of the vehicle was related to the child and in no way was the incident believed to be intentional.
The River Hills Police Department and North Shore Fire Department arrived at the scene. NSFD reportedly attempted lifesaving measures; however, the child sadly succumbed to his injuries en route to the children’s hospital.
The identity of the child and names of those involved are being withheld at the time, pending parental request and privacy request during this time.
Three students were struck and killed by their own school bus and another three were similarly killed by illegal passing motorists during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a national survey of states.
The National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey results were shared on Sunday by Keith Dreiling, the state director of the school bus safety unit at the Kansas State Department of Education, during the annual meeting of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services in Arlington, Virginia. The six fatalities are double the amount reported by states for the 2022-2023 school year.
Two of last year’s fatalities occurred in New York. Both students there were killed by their school bus. An 8-year-old boy was struck on Jan. 29 by his school bus and killed by the right rear wheel after he reportedly ran in front of the vehicle as it was pulling into its loading zone at school. A 5-year-old girl was killed nearly three weeks later on Feb. 16, after she unloaded from her school bus and crossed in front of it. The school bus driver reportedly did not see her and began to accelerate, striking the girl and knocking her to the pavement. The bus continued forward and the left rear wheels killed the girl.
The other fatality caused by the school bus occurred on Jan. 17 in Florida, where a boy exited the vehicle and then dropped a football. He crawled beneath the school bus to retrieve it and in the process was struck and killed by the right rear dual wheels.
The three illegal passing fatalities occurred in Alabama, Georgia and Texas. The Alabama and Texas incidents involved 15-year-old students, the former a subject of a high-profile investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. A 15-year-old girl was in her front yard on Oct. 23, 2023, and about to board her morning school bus, when a truck following the school bus failed to stop, swerved to the right, and continued into the girl’s path, striking her and then her house.
The Texas fatality occurred on Dec. 7 last year, when an 18-wheel, tractor-trailer truck struck a vehicle in front of it that was properly stopped for the school bus. The truck driver then swerved to the right and struck the 15-year-old boy after he exited his bus.
An 8-year-old Georgia girl died on Feb. 4, three days after being hit by an illegally passing oncoming motorist as she was attempting to board her school bus. The incident resulted in Addy’s Law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in April, to increase the fine for illegal school bus passers and add a prison term.
The school buses in the Alabama, Georgia and Texas incidents all had their red lights flashing and stop arms activated at the time of the collisions.
All U.S. states and the District of Columbia responded to the Kansas State Department of Education survey except New Jersey and Rhode Island, which refused to participate. The six recorded fatalities equal the amount reported for the 2021-2022 school year. The incidents all occurred in dry road conditions, with three occurring in daylight, two at dusk and one at dawn. Five of the fatalities occurred in clear weather conditions while one occurred in cloudy conditions.
The survey began in 1970 and has been conducted every year since. About 73 percent of the 1,273 total student fatalities recorded over the 54-year survey were students 9 years of age or younger. School buses have accounted for 717 of the total fatalities compared to 502 by illegally passing motorists and 54 categorized as “other information.” Sixty-four percent of all fatalities occurred during the morning commute to school.
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