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| **Accident No.:**    | HWY-01-FH008                                                                                |
|----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Accident Type:**   | School bus run-off-the-road and rollover                                                    |
| **Location:**        | Northbound State Highway 117 at milepost 6Herndon, Kentucky                                 |
| **Date and Time**    | November 30, 2000, about 7:10 a.m.                                                          |
| **Vehicle:**         | 1994 American Transportation CorporationGenesis model 74-passenger transit-style school bus |
| **Owner/Operator:**  | Christian County (Kentucky) School District                                                 |
| **People on Board:** | Forty-eight--driver and 47 passengers                                                       |
| **Injuries:**        | One fatalForty-seven minor                                                                  |

**Accident Description**
About 7:10 a.m. on November 30, 2000, a 1994 American TransportationCorporation 74-passenger transit-style school bus, owned and operated bythe Christian County (Kentucky) School District, ran off the road and overturnednear Herndon, Kentucky. The driver and 47 elementary school-age childrenwere on board. The accident occurred in a rural area at milepost 6 on StateHighway 117, a two-way, two-lane, 22-foot paved asphalt roadway; the speedlimit was 55 mph.
Just before the accident, according to the busdriver, the school buswas traveling north at a speed of 53 mph and was approaching a 3-degreeleft curve, when a student touched the driver's right arm. The busdriversaid that as she looked to the right, the bus veered to the right and sheturned the wheel to the left. The busdriver recalled that the student felltoward the boarding door step well and she tried to grab the child.
The school bus traveled off the roadway at a 3- to 4-degree angle, hita metal delineator about 3 feet from the pavement edge, struck a corrugatedmetal drainage culvert, and rotated counterclockwise about its verticalaxis on the east roadside. The bus reentered onto the pavement, continuedrotating along a 265-foot radius across the travel lanes, and overturned180 degrees about its longitudinal axis. The bus continued rotating aboutits vertical axis; before coming to rest, the bus rolled back onto itsright side. (See figure 1.)
The busdriver reported being unable to remember anything, after tryingto grab the falling child, until the bus came to rest. She used her two-wayradio to seek assistance and said that she then helped the children offthe bus. The busdriver reported that she was wearing her seatbelt at thetime of the accident. She stated that she experienced no problems withthe bus's operation. The Kentucky State Police performed a mechanical inspectionon scene and found that the steering, suspension, and tires were well maintainedand the brakes were properly adjusted.

**Figure 1.**Diagram showing school bus loss of controland overturn.
During the rollover sequence, a 5-year-old student was fatally injured.Based on the evidence, supported by witness statements, the medical examinerdetermined that the victim "sustained massive head trauma" resulting fromejection through the front roof hatch opening. The busdriver and the other46 students sustained minor injuries.
**Vehicle Damage**
The bus's interior received damage running horizontally and parallelto the bottom edge of the right-side window frames. The roof was deformeddownward on the right about 8 inches and on the left about 12 inches. Theinterior roof panels, sides, and floor remained intact. The passenger boardingdoor was deformed upward and inward about 7 inches and jammed closed. Theboarding door windows and the windshield were broken. (See figure 2.) Theremaining windows, emergency window exits, and left-side and rear emergencydoors were intact and functional.
**Figure 2.**Postaccident front view of school bus.
The bus's exterior sustained impact damage to the roof, right side,and right front corner. The roof was displaced vertically about 6 inchesdownward and 11 inches to the left and about 16 feet behind the right frontcorner near seat row 4. The left side of the bus was intact; it sustainedminor damage about 7 inches horizontally along the window bottoms. Twocircumferential gouge marks were found above the left seat, row 7, wherethe roof and sidewall met.
The forward and rear emergency hatches installed along the roof centerlineabove seat rows 4 and 8, respectively, were missing (see figure 3); bothhatches were found in the grass near the bus. The hatches were shearedoff along the hinge line; the hatch openings remained intact.
**Figure 3.**Postaccident interior view of roof,showing absence of emergency roof hatches.
**Busdriver Information**
The 36-year-old busdriver held a valid Kentucky class D/B commercialdriver's license, with passenger endorsement, issued on November 4, 1999;she possessed a valid medical examiner's certificate issued on September12, 2000. She began driving for the Christian County School District inSeptember 1999 and met all requirements and certifications to operate thebus. According to the busdriver, she was in good health and was not takingany prescription or over-the-counter medications at the time of the accident.The busdriver told Safety Board investigators that she retired at 9:30p.m. on November 29 and awoke at 6:10 a.m. on November 30. She was offduty on November 28.
**Probable Cause**
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probablecause of this accident was the school bus driver's failure to control theschool bus before it left the road after the busdriver had been distractedby one of the student passengers. 
**Adopted August 21, 2002**
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