NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

Liberty School Bus Driver’s Actions Studied in Crash
She said she stepped on brake before fatal Liberty school bus accident. NTSB has no conclusions yet.
May 9, 2007

Hours after a Liberty school bus crashed into two vehicles at a highway intersection, driver Irma Denise Thomas told investigators the bus had sped up despite her stepping hard on the brake.

“I don’t think I had my foot on the gas,” Thomas said two years ago today while being treated at Liberty Hospital, according to investigative documents.

Thomas said she stepped even harder on the brake, but the bus picked up speed.

Thomas was driving Liberty school bus No. 80 on the morning of May 9, 2005, carrying 53 children to Ridgeview Elementary School, when the bus careened out of control, slamming into two vehicles at the intersection of Missouri 291 and Missouri 152, killing two motorists and injuring 23 children on the bus.

Federal authorities now are exploring whether the school bus driver erred before the crash, focusing on what is termed “pedal misapplication,” mistaking the accelerator for the brake pedal, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board has told The Kansas City Star.

Thomas could not be reached Tuesday for comment, and her attorney said Thomas would not comment about the crash.

Keith Holloway, spokesman for the NTSB, said no conclusion had been reached in the Liberty crash and a final report was not expected for several months.

He said NTSB officials were comparing that crash to another school bus accident Jan. 12 in Bucks County, Pa. It raised a similar issue of pedal misapplication, he said.

“Because they are similar accidents, we will look at pedal misapplication,” Holloway said. “We are not saying that was the cause, but there are some similar characteristics in both accidents that we are examining.”

He said both crashes involved school buses veering off the road. Both buses were built by Thomas Built Buses and the models were similar, too. The Liberty bus, a 2000 model, had been repaired about five years before the accident after a massive recall for serious brake malfunctions. The Pennsylvania bus, which was a few years older, also had brake work done.

The Pennsylvania crash occurred at Pennsbury High School. A school bus veered into a group of students as they were leaving their school. The bus jumped a curb, drove over a sidewalk, plowed down a fence and crashed head-on into a retaining wall. No one died, but 17 students were injured.

The NTSB later said it had found no major mechanical errors with the Pennsylvania bus, although it had not ruled out that possibility.

Local authorities there concluded that the school bus driver stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake, according to published news reports.

Since May 2005, Liberty police have withheld their detailed reports on the local crash, stating that they were part of the federal investigation.

In previously unreleased documents now provided by the NTSB, Thomas described the seconds before the crash to authorities. She said that as the bus was traveling south on Missouri 291, she could see traffic had stopped ahead of her, so she steered the bus into the right lane. Thomas said she then veered the bus toward the shoulder and struck a light pole.

Seconds later, Thomas said, her memory faded. The next thing she remembered was someone helping her out of the front of the bus and seeing an injured child lying motionless on the floor near her seat, according to the reports.

Witnesses throughout the documents described the scene as chaotic and surreal. Many recalled how the bus teetered on its side. Children were yelling and screaming as emergency crews and passers-by raced to help them. Some witnesses told officials the bus did not appear to slow down as it entered the intersection, and at least two motorists also traveling south on Missouri 291 reported that they did not see any brake lights illuminate on the bus.

The crash killed David Gleason, 53, and David Sandweiss, 49, and critically injured two children.

In the reports, Thomas said she didn’t know whether she blacked out or whether she hit her head during the accident. She said she did not downshift as she pressed on the brake. Thomas said she was certain that she stepped on the brake, not the accelerator, according to the police report.

Alan Ross, president of the National Coalition of School Bus Safety, said that “pedal misapplication is fancy terminology for a mistake by a school bus driver.”

“School bus drivers are well-meaning people, but accidents do happen,” said Ross, whose nonprofit group lobbies for school bus safety, enhanced driver training and mandatory seat belts on all school buses.

Jim Dunn, spokesman for Liberty School District, said district officials had no comment about the direction the NTSB investigation may be going.

“We are not going to speculate on the report until it is issued,” he said.

Anita Porte Robb, an attorney for Gleason’s family and for two of the most seriously injured children, said an independent investigation showed that Thomas applied the brakes and the crash occurred because of a mechanical failure. Robb’s clients are suing Thomas Built Buses, the bus manufacturer.

The wreck has spawned dozens of civil lawsuits against the school district and various defendants who are linked to the manufacturing and maintenance of the bus.

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