School bus traffic safety issues continue
Two accidents with Miamisburg buses occurred in last month.
A school bus was hit by a car in an intersection last week, a day after a resident near Miamisburg High School said drivers failing to stop for the mass transportation vehicles continues to be a safety risk.
A car slammed into the side of a bus as the school district vehicle appeared to have a green light and was crossing the intersection of South Heincke and Maue roads around 2:45 p.m. Thursday.
No students were on the bus when the crash happened, according to officials on the scene, and there was no word on any serious injuries.
The bus driver was “a little shaken after the accident,” said Scott Gilbert, director of business for the school district.
Gilbert said it was the second accident involving a Miamisburg school bus this month. On Feb. 6, a vehicle hit a bus on Ohio 725, he said.
Last week’s wreck came a day after Joanna Bentley told this news organization drivers in her Belvo Road neighborhood continue to violate laws involving school buses.
Bentley, who has voiced her
concerns for more than a year, said she knows of a number of incidents in which motorists disobey traffic safety around school buses.
“Within the last three weeks, we’ve had four incidents where cars are not stopping for the school bus again at our bus stop here,”
Bentley said.
This news organization has made a public records request for the police incident report involving Thursday afternoon’s wreck, but had not received any records as of Friday afternoon.
According to video near the Heincke/Maue intersection, a car appears to run a red light and narrowly miss a vehicle crossing the road with a green light.
The car appearing to be at fault then slams into the left side of the school bus near its mid-section, according to the video.
Bentley said she records drivers with her doorbell camera and gives the videos to Miamisburg City School District resource officers, as well as to the district’s transportation department.
Last spring, Miamisburg school district officials said they were installing five cameras, costing about $500 a piece, that record when the bus is running and will catch the rear license plates of drivers who don’t stop. District officials said they would take those images and file reports with police.