The National Transportation Safety Board has released its findings in the October 2018 Fulton County bus stop crash that left three children dead and another seriously injured. The four students were crossing State Road 25 to board a Tippecanoe Valley school bus when they were hit by a pickup truck.
While the primary cause was determined to be the pickup truck driver’s failure to stop for the school bus, the NTSB says the school corporation’s inadequate safety assessment of its bus routes and lack of a clear policy on how bus drivers should determine when it’s safe to let students cross the road also contributed.
The NTSB noted that requiring students to cross a 55 mile-per-hour roadway in the dark posed a safety issue, along with the fact that many motorists fail to stop for buses with their stop arm extended. The report includes a list of 12 safety recommendations designed to address those and other issues.
An abstract of the final report was released Tuesday. The full report is expected to be published online in the coming weeks.
Last year, the driver of the pickup truck, Alyssa Shepherd, was found guilty of reckless homicide, criminal recklessness, and passing a school bus causing bodily injury. She was sentenced to four years in prison, followed by house arrest and probation.
