Three students had minor injuries and a bus driver was transported to the hospital following a school bus crash Monday morning.
According to State Highway Patrol, it was dark and foggy when a Wake County school bus with 11 students on board drove over a fallen tree branch and came to a stop in a ditch.
“The bus went up in the air, started shaking, and we swerved into the side of the road,” said a student who was on board.
This is at least the fifth crash involving a school bus that WRAL News has covered in the past two weeks.
On Oct. 2, a school bus crashed by the intersection of Jenks Road and Morris Acres Road in Apex.
Last week, Johnston County experienced two school bus crashes, including one where a school bus went over the center line and collided with a garbage truck.
Surveillance video captured another incident in Johnston County the day prior where an SUV drove head-on into a bus.
“We obviously see more during the time that the school year is starting, around this season, and then in addition to that we’ve also got the seasons changing and as a result daylight savings time is coming,” Governor’s Highway Safety Program Director Mark Ezzell said.
According to Department of Transportation data, crashes involving school buses in North Carolina have increased slightly, but remained relatively steady.
- In 2024, there were 1,125 crashes involving a school bus, 258 injury crashes and three fatal crashes.
- In 2023, there were 1,091 crashes involving a school bus, 227 injury crashes and six fatal crashes.
- In 2022, there were 1,088 crashes involving a school bus, 131 injury crashes and eight fatal crashes.
The latest data from the National Safety Council of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states school bus-related crashes killed 128 people nationwide in 2023, up 23% compared to the 104 deaths in 2022.
Of the 128 deaths in 2023, 117 were not on the school bus.
The NHTSA says students are still nearly eight times safer riding on a school bus compared to a car driven by a parent or guardian, attributing that to the large size of a bus, its energy absorbent seats and laws surrounding school bus safety.
School districts recruit and hire bus drivers, but the North Carolina DMV trains drivers and recertifies their necessary Commercial Drivers License (CDL).
The DMV encourages drivers to be vigilant around school buses, especially during the morning pick-up and afternoon drop-off.
“It’s just really important that all the people that are out there driving are paying full attention to driving, especially when they’re around school buses,” NCDMV Spokesperson Marty Homan said. “And of course, for our school bus drivers, that they’re properly trained and they themselves are also paying attention when they’re driving.”