Blog Post

A California Highway Patrol investigation into a bus accident on Highway 101 near Asti, California in Sonoma County, that injured nine high school students last Monday, has revealed the absence of drug use, or alcohol consumption in causing the accident.  According to the First Student, the national school bus company that hired the 49-year-old Rohnert Park resident Raymond Bryon Brooks, the driver of the ill fated bus, Brook is a model employee, and has had a perfectly clean driving record in all his years of service in the company.  Moreover, the company claims that Brooke is a highly proficient driver who regularly conducts training camps for other drivers in the company.

The bus accident happened on Highway 101. It was taking students from the Geyserville, Cloverdale, Ukiah and Calistoga areas to the Sonoma State University sponsored Upward Bound-North program from the Rohnert Park campus to stops near their high schools. Just before 4 pm, the bus swerved off the road, and the driver while attempting to steer the bus back on course, overcorrected.  The result was that the bus turned over with a deafening crash then continued to slide along the median and into the southbound lane.  Imagine a bus full of teenagers, trapped in a bus as the vehicle proceeds to slide at least 100 feet on its side. The students who were sitting on the passenger side of the bus fell down from the newly heightened position when the bus toppled over.  A terrifying 100 feet later, the bus finally came to a stop. Brooks made use of the broken windshield to help students scramble out of the bus.

Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic from the southbound lane at the time of the bus accident; otherwise we would have probably seen more tragic consequences that we have seen here.

The California Highway Patrol lays down stringent requirements for drivers who wish to obtain a school bus driver’s license. They are required to complete at least 20 hours of classroom and driving lessons, and have fingerprinting and background checks done before they can even be considered for a school bus driver’s license.  These licenses have to be renewed after five years, and drivers are required to take refresher courses every 10 years.

It certainly does seem as though the drivers really are filtered and screened before they can be allowed to get behind the wheel of a school bus, which makes it all the more surprising that a driver, and especially one as experienced and proficient as Brooks reportedly was, could have made such potentially tragic errors.  Why did the bus swerve off into the opposite lane? Buses don’t just drift across on their own.  Was there driver fatigue involved?  It also seems strange that a highly trained and experienced driver overcorrected so badly, causing a massive machine to topple over like an empty tin can.

Although it’s still too early to say what the reasons for the bus accident may have been, we know human error can creep into even the most experienced hands.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.