SCHOOL BUS CRASH REPORTS 2006

2 Students Die in Bus Crash - Devers, Texas
March 29, 2006

A girls' soccer team was on way to Humble game; many of 25 people on board injured.

Two members of a Beaumont high school girls soccer team were killed Wednesday when the charter bus they were on swerved off a Liberty County road after the driver tried to avoid debris from a truck, officials said.

At least a dozen other members of the West Brook High School team were injured in the accident, which occurred about 2:30 p.m. on Highway 90 just east  of Devers. Devers is about 60 miles northeast of Houston.

A police officer at a gathering Wednesday night in the school gym identified the girls as senior Alicia Bonura and sophomore Ashley Brown, according to the  Beaumont Enterprise.

The bus was westbound on the highway when investigators think the driver tried to avoid a bundle of foam insulation that fell from an eastbound pickup, said Tom Vinger, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. The bus driver then swerved on the rain-slicked road.

"The school bus rolled onto its side and landed in the bar ditch," Vinger said.

The heavy downpour probably contributed to the driver losing control, said Richard Vasser, a spokesman with the Texas Department of Transportation.

Police said the driver of the pickup, who was hauling a flatbed load of the foam, didn't realize he might have caused the accident until someone told him.  He then waited for authorities.

"The driver of the pickup truck wasn't aware that he had lost his load," Vinger said.

Authorities righted the bus shortly after 6 p.m. Traffic was detoured to Interstate 10, though big rig trucks, unable to turn around on the two-lane road, were forced to wait.

The bus, chartered from Sun Travel Tours and & Limousine, was carrying 22 students, a bus driver and two school officials, according to officer Crystal Holmes of the Beaumont Police Department.

Wednesday night, West Brook students, faculty, staff and family reminisced about two girls who loved soccer, their school and, everyone they came in touch with.

For 14 years, senior Danielle Doland considered Bonura, a tall, brown-haired senior, one of her best friends. Bonura could light up a room with her smile, Doland said, and when she giggled, everyone else couldn't help but join in.

"She had the most wonderful laugh," Doland said. "She was definitely the most funny, the sweetest person that I know."

On her Web page on Myspace.com, Bonura wrote about her love for God, her friends and sports, especially soccer and snowboarding. She was also excited to be going to college at Texas A&M. The page asks who she'd like to meet. She wrote, "I can't wait to meet God."

Like Bonura, students gravitated to Brown, social studies teacher Ken Poston said.

Freckle-faced with flowing red hair, Brown made Poston's fourth-period class roll with laughter at times. One male student who sat in front of Brown sometimes allowed his "free-spirited" personality to stop class.

Brown knew just the trick, Poston said. "Ashley was always one to say, 'Oh, hold it down. Let's get back to work,'" Poston said. "She would do it in way to make him laugh and the rest of us laugh."

Team was to play Lamar Bonura, Brown and the rest of the team were en route to the Houston area for a rescheduled first-round playoff against Houston's Lamar High School. Rain had delayed a Tuesday match.

Many of the injured were taken to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont. Twelve students with minor injuries were taken to Liberty-Dayton Community Hospital in Liberty, treated and released.

Johnny Spurlock of the Liberty County Medical Services was one of the first to arrive at the scene and saw the two girls who died at the rear of the bus.

He said he saw other teenagers wandering outside the vehicle. Then he focused his attention on retrieving two people whose arms were trapped under the bus.

"It was a very extensive effort to extract them," he said. "We had to use airbags to raise up the bus so they could free their arms. It took an hour, but it seemed like forever." He said they were still conscious.

Johnna Ledoux of Beaumont said she saw the bus flipping and called 911 in a panicked voice. She said the dispatcher told her: "You cannot be upset. Lower your voice, be calm for these kids." She said she immediately controlled herself.

She said it appeared the bus flipped several times, and she saw seriously injured girls.

"I thought it was a school bus. All these girls were getting out. Then I saw it was a charter bus. I could tell they were hurt because they were all bleeding." She said she rounded up three of the girls to comfort them.

"I just tried to talk to them and tell them they would be OK and help was coming," Ledoux said.

Then she said: "One little girl was so brave. She was hurt the most, bleeding from the head." She said the girl told her "all we can do is pray" and the woman said, "That's what we do."

The bus driver, a woman whose name was not released, was driven to the hospital by the owner of the company, according to the Beaumont Enterprise.

The bus that crashed is a 2002 vehicle. According to the Texas Department of Transportation's Internet site, Sun Travel's insurance and certificate to operate in the state are "active," meaning they are in compliance with the state.

Beaumont ISD Superintendent Carrol Thomas told the Beaumont Enterprise the district had used the company for years without incident.

Safety record
The bus company has a below-average driver safety performance, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The federal agency's Web site shows that Sun Travel had a score of 68 in the driver category of all Safety Evaluation Areas. According to the agency, a score  of 68 means that approximately 68 percent of motor carriers had a better driver  safety performance than Sun Travel. The national average is 25.

However, the federal agency's Web site showed that Sun Travel had an overall carrier safety rating of "satisfactory" as of Feb. 28. The company's compliance  review was conducted on Feb. 23.

The Web site also shows that in the previous two years, Sun Travel's buses or mini-buses have been involved in one crash, where a passenger was injured in Angelina County. In the 24 months prior to Wednesday, the state of Texas had reported one injury accident involving the Beaumont-based company, according to the federal agency's Web site.

Sun Travel owner Michael G. Labrie did not return telephone calls late Wednesday.

Karen Collier, spokeswoman for Humble ISD, said the Beaumont team was to play Lamar High School from the Houston Independent School District at Charles Street Stadium, a Humble ISD facility. The game has been canceled, and there's been no discussion about rescheduling, Collier said.

The West Brook girls who are coached by Rachael Scoggin,had a 15-6-1 record on the season and finished in third place in District 22-5A with a 9-4-1 district mark behind first-place Kingwood and second-place Humble.

They are led by senior forward Lauri Thibaut, who signed to play at the University of Texas at El Paso next year.

The Lamar Redskins finished 14-5-2 on the season and were the second-place team in District 21-5A.

"We offer our condolences to the players, their families and the students in the Beaumont Independent School District," Lamar coach Misty Benson said.

By CINDY HORSWELL and ZEKE MINAYA Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle DEVERS

Chronicle reporters Sam Khan Jr., Renee C. Lee, Terri Langford and Anne Marie Kilday and F.A. Krift with the Beaumont Enterprise contributed to this report.

back to Crash Reports 2006

top