Kettering police probe fatal bus crash
Driver dead after RTA bus veers off road into two parked vehicles.
Police are investigating a fatal crash involving an RTA bus that veered off the roadway and smashed into two vehicles parked in a driveway.
The bus driver was pronounced dead at Kettering Medical Center on Saturday.
The driver is identified as Neal Booher, 39, of Dayton, and an autopsy was scheduled for Sunday, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
A pickup truck parked on a driveway was smashed between the RTA bus and a large tree in the front yard of a house on Forrer Boulevard near Pittsfield Street.
The bus did not hit the house, whose owners were away at the time of the crash. The bus display said it was Route 12, Five Oaks.
The crash was reported around 5:15 p.m., Kettering police said, when Booher veered off the road for an unknown reason. Two passengers in the bus were transported to the hospital, and the extent of their injuries is not known.
Kettering police Lt. Lee Sanders said others were treated and
released for minor injuries, and what caused the bus to go off the road remains under investigation.
The crash shut down Forrer Boulevard between Hazel and Culver avenues.
Other recent crashes involving RTA buses
In May, a car pulled out in front of an RTA bus, causing a two-vehicle crash on East Third Street near North Philadelphia Street.
There were six passengers plus the driver aboard the RTA bus, but no one was hurt, police said.
In March, a car ran a red- light and hit an RTA bus, forcing the bus to flip over. The car caught fire and three people in the car died. The driver and passengers on the bus were not seriously injured.
Since 2013, the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority has paid more than $1.2 million out-of-pocket for accident, injury and property damage claims filed by bus riders, motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, property owners and others, according to agency documents.
During that time period, about 1,967 people submitted claims that allege they were injured or had their property damaged because of the Greater Dayton RTA, the data show.