Car and School Bus Collide; Ten Children Injured

Brenda L. Head

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A car slammed into a school bus Wednesday morning in Topeka, Kansas, leaving ten Chase Middle School students with minor injuries. The accident occured when the the bus was traveling south on N.E. Monroe and the car, a white Chevrolet, ran a stop sign. The car then continued out of control and hit the corner of nearby home.

In all, the bus was carrying 31 middle school students, ten of which were taken to a local hospital for treatment. All parents of the children were contacted by school officials immediately. The driver of the car, Sharon E. Humston, was ticketed for failing to yeild the right of way, while the driver of the bus, Carolyn V. Keck, was also hospitalized with nonlife-threatening injuries. The home suffered considerable structural damage.

The bus was not equipped with seat belts and interestingly a Kansas legislator had proposed requiring seat belts in all school buses early this year. That piece of legislation never made it out of committee. In 2002 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported to Congress that children are eight times more likely to be injured when riding to school in there parents car than riding on a school bus.