SCHOOL BUS CRASH
REPORTS 2003
Bus
accident kills Maplewood girl
November 7, 2003
A 5-year-old
Maplewood kindergartner was struck and killed Thursday afternoon by her
school bus, seconds after she and her older sister got off the bus across
the street from their home.
Sarah Busch died at
the scene. She had been riding from her afternoon kindergarten class at
Edgerton Elementary School, less than a mile from her family's house.
Police identified the
bus driver as Leslie Kinnunen, 42, of Shoreview. Earlier, Maplewood Police
Chief David Thomalla described Kinnunen as "very shaken" and said the driver
underwent a drug test, which is standard procedure.
Sarah and her sister
Samantha, 7, were among several students who got off the bus just before 4
p.m. in the 400 block of Eldridge Av. E., Thomalla said. It wasn't clear in
what order the students left, but Samantha got off before Sarah did, a
relative said.
Samantha saw her
sister lying on the street and knew something was wrong, said the girls'
step-grandfather, John Borlaug. The bus, still carrying students, had come
to a stop, he said.
Samantha went to her
house, about 50 yards away. Borlaug said she called out, "Mommy, Mommy.
Something's wrong with Sarah!"
Her parents ran to
the street and the girls' father, Steve Busch, a Maplewood volunteer
firefighter, tried to resuscitate his younger daughter, Borlaug said.
"The family's in
rough shape," he said. "Their shock was immediate."
Hours after the
accident, police continued to interview students who were still aboard the
Centerline Charters Corp. bus or who had left it where Sarah was hit,
Thomalla said. It was not immediately clear whether she was dragged under
the bus, he said.
A Roseville Area
School spokeswoman said later that the bus had run over Sarah. It stopped
about 12 feet beyond Sarah's body, Thomalla said.
No charges have been
filed, although Kinnunen was detained for questioning. He was not available
for comment Thursday night.
Thomalla said the
case will be forwarded to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office for review.
The Roseville Public
School district has an annual contract with the Little Canada bus company to
provide all of the schools' transportation, said Sally Latimer, the
district's community relations director.
Officials from
Centerline, formerly known as Comfort Bus Co., declined to comment Thursday
evening.
Latimer said Kinnunen
was a regular driver who has been working for the company for several years.
She also said she did not know whether any complaints about his driving had
been made in the past.
The route would have
been familiar to him, she said. The Busch children were among students being
taken home at the end of the day from Edgerton, a kindergarten through
sixth-grade school.
Latimer, citing the
police investigation, released few details about the accident. Thomalla said
the exact sequence of events is in question.
The district's crisis
management team of counselors, social workers and others was activated, and
representatives were sent to offer support to the girl's family, Latimer
said.
School officials also
contacted parents of the other children on the bus to make sure counseling
was available to them.
Teachers will be
given information on how to help students who are grieving in their
classrooms today, and counselors will be available, Latimer said.
Roseville school and
police officials have tried to emphasize school bus safety. School leaders
recently drafted an article reminding people about safety and submitted it
for publication in the Roseville Review, a community newspaper.
Children are told to
cross in front of the school buses, not behind them, Latimer said.
Younger children have
died in similar accidents in the metro area in the past five years.
In 2000, Tara Marie
Bates, a Lakeville second-grader, was killed when she fell under the rear
wheel of a bus she was trying to board after school. She attended Cherry
View Elementary School.
In 1998, a 6-year-old
Eagan boy died when he ran into the rear wheels of the school bus he had
exited. Alexander Veerkamp had just returned home from his morning
kindergarten class.
Within the past 10
years, two 13-year-old Minneapolis students died in separate school
bus-related accidents.
Sarah's death stunned
neighbors, who remember her often playing with their children.
When neighbor Lou
Moua got a call Thursday afternoon from her husband, Bright, who
said that "Sarah was in an accident," she thought it was their 10-year-old
daughter with the same name.
On Thursday, as
usual, the girls rode the same bus home together. Moua's children did not
see the accident.
"It's awful for
everybody because we know her family," Moua said. "Sarah was so friendly."
Moua said her
daughter and 8-year-old son, Richard, played outside Sarah's house with her
dog on weekends.
"Everybody cares
about each other around here," Moua said. "We must continue to look out for
our kids."
Relatives said Sarah
was a bright girl who easily grasped tasks.
"She was smart . . .
witty," Borlaug said. "She was challenging. You always had to think three
years ahead for the type of toys to get her."
Steve and Sonya Busch
also have a 2-year-old boy, Borlaug said.
Standing outside the
family's home, the girls' aunt, Heather Holscher, who also spoke on behalf
of the family, said Sarah was creative and had a great sense of humor.
"Her face was always
full of expression," Holscher said.
"It was an accident.
It is a tragic accident."
*****************************
This terrible tragedy is
unfortunately a repetition of a well known pattern of school bus fatalities.
More children are killed as
pedestrians outside the bus. Most often they are run over by their own
school bus. The majority of these accidents occur on the way home, to very
young children (grades K-3), and more often to girls.
When I hear of a loading or
unloading fatality, I speculate as to whether the bus was involved and was
it a little girl on the way home? More than half the time, this sad profile
fits.
What can be done about it?
* Awareness of those in
charge and constant reinforcement to drivers that there is danger in letting
off little ones on the way home.
* Routing must make every
effort to avoid children crossing the street when getting on or off the bus.
* A drivers aid on the bus
as a second set of eyes to ensure that all children are clear of the bus
before moving.
* Most laws involve the
danger of vehicle passing the school bus, and there is nothing wrong with
these statutes. However, to some extent they distract form the greater
danger, to children, the bus itself.
From the Minneapolis Star
Tribune, November 7, 2003
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Crash Reports 2003
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