Car Driver Facing Charges in Ohio School Bus Crash
USA Today’s Cincinnati section is reporting that a car driver who set off a bus crash has now been charged in connection with that accident.
Twenty-three-year-old Robert Jett was traveling north in his Ford Crown Victoria on Winton Road in Cincinnati, Ohio, when he tried to pass another car. However, after passing, he lost control over his car and hit the rear end of Jordan Ervin’s Dodge Neon. This collision sent Ervin into oncoming traffic, and he hit a school bus carrying several children. The bus spun from the force of the collision and ended up hitting another car. It also struck a utility pole, which then landed on top of it as it came to rest with its rear tires off of the road.
Ervin was trapped in his Neon after the collision and was cut out by first responders. He is currently in serious condition at an area hospital. A two-year-old child in Ervin’s car was ejected and is also in serious condition but stable, while a one-year-old who was also in his car is hospitalized in serious condition.
According to investigators, excessive speed was also a factor in this accident, which is why Jett now has charges pending against him. Forty-year-old Trina Turnbow, the school bus driver, is in the hospital in fair condition, and a 12-year-old passenger on the bus is in critical condition. Nine other students on the bus were injured and hospitalized, but luckily, none of those injuries appear to be serious.
The bus was carrying students from nearby Pleasant Hill Academy. One student, 6-year-old Malachi McKelton, was clinging to his mother Latisha’s leg as they made their way down the hill from the accident scene to go the hospital, as the young boy was complaining of arm pain. Latisha said the crash site was a “disaster” and that students were crying as parents frantically searched for their children.
Vicky Engleman, a grandmother of one of the students on the bus, said she and her grandchild’s mother became nervous as they waited at the bus stop because the bus was so late. A woman going by told them about the accident, so they rushed to the scene. Luckily, the child in question wasn’t seriously injured, but Engelman spoke of the panic they experienced when they couldn’t initially locate her at the crash site.
Parents of students who had minor injuries picked up their children at the crash site and were told to have them examined at a local hospital. Children who did not need to go to the hospital were taken to another bus that was driven to the accident site, and that bus eventually returned to the school with Principal Shauna McDowell riding along with the students.
Speed and reckless driving are common factors in many accidents and appear to be the culprits behind this serious bus accident. If you have been injured by a driver who was reckless on the road, speak to an experienced auto attorney, like a Denver personal injury lawyer, about your case.
Thanks to our friends and contributors from The Law Offices of Richard J. Banta, P.C. for their insight into bus accident cases.