School bus driver's medical condition a factor in fatal crash, fire
By allowing someone with a known physical impairment to drive a school bus, an Iowa school district is partly responsible for a 2017 crash and fire that killed both the driver and a female student who was his passenger. That determination is part of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation into the Dec. 12 incident in Oakland, Iowa involving a bus operated by the Riverside Community School District.
The crash occurred when the driver turned from a rural gravel road onto a residential driveway to pick up the first student on his route. After the student boarded the bus, the driver reversed out of the driveway and backed across the road – as was his normal practice at that location. However this time, he continued until the bus’s rear wheels ran off the road and got stuck in a three-foot ditch next to the road. With the driver attempting to navigate the vehicle out of the ditch, a fire began in the engine compartment and spread throughout the school bus. The driver and the only passenger – a 16-year-old student – did not get out of the burning bus in time and perished.