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 Bus Crashes Into Home: 'I Just Heard A Big Noise'PALOS HILLS, Ill.-- A school bus crashed into the side of a house Wednesday morning in Palos Hills, NBC5 reported. No children were aboard the bus at the time of the accident, but the bus driver, who was identified as a 65-year old woman, was taken to Christ Hospital in nearby Oak Lawn. She suffered minor injuries, NBC5 reported. "The bus driver had just delivered a load of students off at the school," said Palos Hills deputy police chief Steve Good, "and was exiting the parking lot when she came across some backed-up traffic and accidentally hit the gas pedal, and then turned off the road and struck the home." The homeowner was inside the house at the time of the accident, but was in another part of the house when the accident occurred. She said she was in the bedroom when she heard a loud noise. She was not injured in the incident. "I just heard a big noise," said the woman. "A very loud noise. I came inside and saw a big bus in my kitchen." Continue to full story... Seat-belt debate rages after school bus tragedy11/13/2004 Diana Kautz died in a school bus designed to be the safest on the road. It came with special padding, seat belts and a security camera to ensure that students got to and from school without harm. The camera on Diana's bus, now in the hands of accident investigators, recorded the horror of students being tossed in the gaping hold of the bus as it rolled over again and again Thursday on a road in The Acreage. It also recorded the fact that Diana, 15, was not wearing her seat belt. Sitting in the seat directly behind the driver, Diana was thrown through the door and died. The father of the bus driver, Maria Abrahantes, said she flew through the same door, but investigators had not confirmed that Friday — only that she also was not wearing a seat belt. Abrahantes, critically injured with several broken ribs and left-arm fractures, remained at St. Mary's Medical Center on Friday. The school district requires drivers to wear seat belts, but not students. Diana's death — the first of a student in a Palm Beach County school bus accident — rekindled the decades-long debate over whether students on buses should be required to wear seat belts, as they are in automobiles. School board Chairman Tom Lynch has called for an inquiry. At least one other politician, Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, demanded the bolstering of the current seat belt system to include mandatory shoulder restraints. Lynch said Friday that he expects some safety changes as a result of the accident, possibly requiring bus drivers to more closely monitor seat belt use or installing devices that would tell drivers if a belt isn't buckled. Continue to full story... webmaster@sbresource.com |
