SCHOOL BUS CRASH REPORTS 2007

Motorist Shaken By Ice Flying Off Bus
March 20, 2007

MIFFLINBURG — Add school buses to the list of vehicles to be wary of after a heavy snowfall.

A Union County woman said she narrowly escaped a serious accident around 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon when a chunk of ice fell off a school bus and hit her car as she drove on Route 45 between Mifflinburg and Lewisburg.

Linda Swartz, of Mifflinburg, said she was driving westbound and the bus was heading in the other direction when the ice flew off the top of the bus and landed on her vehicle. The ice hit the bar along the edge of the windshield, so it didn't cause any noticeable damage. She said she feared the incident would have been much worse if the ice had hit the glass, instead of the metal.

"It could have crashed through the windshield and killed me," Ms. Swartz said.

And in the moments immediately after the ice hit her vehicle, Ms. Swartz said she wasn't immediately certain how much damage had been done to her vehicle. So, she quickly turned around and followed the bus until the driver stopped in Lewisburg.

There, she told the driver what had happened. The driver replied that it was unreasonable to expect him to climb on top of the bus to clean off ice.

But a district administrator said that cleaning the ice off the top is the driver's responsibility.

David Oberlin, the Mifflinburg Area School District transportation director, said there is no exemption for school buses included in a recent state law that requires motorists to remove ice and snow from their vehicles.

"(The bus drivers) have to follow the law," he said.

But, a state police spokesman said last month that the new law, requiring motorists to clean ice off their vehicles, includes no specific penalties for cases in which no one is hurt or the injuries are minor. Rather, the law addresses cases of serious bodily injury or death.

The Monday incident is the second incident in the past month in which a Central Susquehanna Valley motorist has reported being hit by ice flying off a larger vehicle.

On Feb. 16, Joseph Hauserman, of Elimsport, suffered minor injuries when ice fell off a tractor-trailer and smashed into the windshield of his pickup truck while he was driving on Route 147 near Northumberland.

And Saturday, a woman driving near Allentown, suffered a broken nose when a chunk of ice flew off the top of a truck and went through the windshield of her car, The Associated Press reported.

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