Was School Bus Trying To Make Illegal U-Turn Before Rt. 80 Crash?

Long Valley Patch ^ | 05/18/2018 | Katie Kausch

[Mr Radical]

My take (I think it was probably a miracle more did not loose their lives):


probable impact (based on damage to bus body and chassis):

[Mr Radical]

the bus spun thru’ 360 out of the way of the truck and then back onto the highway

[sevinufnine]

It begs belief, don’t it?

[sevinufnine]

“Can you tell whether the truck hit the bus from the side, the front, or the rear?”

My guess, based on the photos and direction of traffic, the dump truck pretty much hit the bus directly on the “passenger”/right side in front of the side doors tearing off the engine/nose of the vehicle and sending it for a loop.

[sevinufnine]

A miracle at least!

My husband is in constructions, so I can tell you a truck that size full of dirst was likely a minimum of 30 tons. BARE minimum that is. So lots of weight going God knows how fast when it struck the bus.

[mewzilla]

Have you seen any updates? I can’t find a darn thing on either driver, or the status of local/state/NTSB investigations.

[mewzilla]

Check this out. NTSB won’t investigate...

https://articles.lehighvalleylive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/05/why_the_ntsb_will_not_be_inves.amp

[Alberta's Child]

The county prosecutor's office announced today that the bus driver has been charged with two counts of death by auto.

The emerging details of the incident are even more outrageous than I thought.

When it was first reported that the driver may have been making a U-turn when the crash occurred, I assumed he was driving westbound on I-80 and slowed to a near stop to turn left into that "official use only" crossover you see at the left side of your photos.

It turns out he had missed at least two turns on this trip, and was actually entering westbound I-80 from the southbound Route 206 entrance ramp when the crash occurred. You can see the entrance ramp at the bottom of your photos. The driver was trying to cross all three lanes of I-80 to make that U-turn, and was nearly perpendicular to the flow of traffic when it was hit by the dump truck.

For what it's worth, the dump truck was traveling in the middle lane when it hit the bus.

[mewzilla]

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NJ-School-Bus-Crash-Driver-Violations-483357721.html

The district employed him anyqay.

[mewzilla]

77 YO, 14 license suspensions, multiple moving violations.

[Mr Radical]

Thanks for the update. I had originally assumed the bus was making a wide turn from the "slow" lane on I-80 (here in England that would be lane "1" but where you are I guess in this case it would be lane "3"). By extending my original pics you can better see - the path of the bus is shown by track made across the median by its rear wheels.

Still amazing more didn't loose their lives, I hope the injured will all recover.