SCHOOL BUS CRASH REPORTS 2006

Boy Emerges As 'Mini-Hero' After School Bus Rolls
Kids WALKING to the back door after removing their seatbelts.
January 18, 2006

DUTTON Grade 8 pupil Aaron McTavish-Tsuruda wasn’t dreaming in the back seat of his St. Thomas-bound school bus Wednesday morning when he was awakened as it rolled twice into a water-filled ditch on Chalmers Road just north of the village. And he certainly didn’t panic.

The 13-year-old figured experience from two previous school bus crashes helped him know how to react.

“I was sleeping in the back seat and all I remember is getting tossed around as the bus rolled," said the teen. “I took off my seat belt and opened the back (emergency) door and started helping. Everybody had on seatbelts. The bus driver, she was telling everyone to stay calm and the other kids started walking to the back door.

“I heard a few screams and there were a few frightened kids. One girl hit her head.  Most of the people stayed calm."

McTavish-Tsuruda’s calm and measured response showed as he helped five others on board “all but one under 10 years of age” out the rear emergency door to safety was lauded yesterday Thames Valley District School Board official Chris Dennett. “He really got involved," said Dennett. “Obviously he’s a mini-hero."

“I’m very proud and lucky," dad Brent Tsuruda said as he visited the crash scene with his son after lunch.

“We were so impressed with his quick thinking and even quicker actions," said Jane  Hanbuch, the principal at Homedale public school in St. Thomas.

“There will definitely be an assembly at school. We’re just pleased everyone is safe."

The teenager got onto the bus at his home in Duart, a tiny hamlet between Rodney and  Ridgetown.

The boy goes to classes in St. Thomas because Homedale is a French-immersion school.

The Voyageur minibus was picking up passengers on Chalmers Road “a snow covered gravel road” when it hit a patch of ice, sending the bus into the ditch, narrowly missing a guard rail as it rolled.

The bus rolled twice before ending up on its wheels, with the front end of the bus partially submerged in water. The bus was carrying three passengers headed to Homedale and three others to Wellington public schools in St. Thomas.

By JOHN HERBERT, FREE PRESS CRIME REPORTER

NOTE: By Arthur L. Yeager, DMD, MMH
So much for seat belts impeding efficient exiting from school buses. All children rode through this double rollover in good shape and were relatively uninjured, mobile and able to exit.  This would be an unlikely outcome if they were not wearing seat belts!

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