Multiple students injured in school bus crash in Wisconsin
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RANDOM LAKE, Wisconsin (WDJT) — Eight students were hospitalized after their school bus was struck by a driver in rural Ozaukee County Monday, Sept. 16.
It happened just before 7:25 a.m. at the intersection of County Highway E and Jay Road in the Town of Fredonia.
According to the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office, a 32-year-old woman from West Bend driving a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee drove through the stop sign while heading east on Jay Road. The bus was going north on County Highway E, and the Jeep hit the bus in the center of the driver’s side as it was traveling north.
The crash caused the bus to spin 180 degrees, overturn onto its passenger side and land in a ditch along the highway.
Authorities say the bus was from the Random Lake School District carrying 36 students whose ages range from elementary to high school.
Random Lake School District Superintendent Michael Trimberger said the most serious injuries suffered by the eight hospitalized students included concussions and broken bones. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
Trimberger said his greater concern was students being traumatized by being involved in a bad crash while on a school bus, and the district was working to bring in additional mental health specialists for meetings Tuesday with students at all grade levels.
“We’re going to do an elementary, a middle and a high school group session to make sure our students know this is a safe place,” he said. “That buses are safe.”
The driver of the Jeep also had a 33-year-old passenger from Random Lake. Both the driver and passenger received minor injuries and were transported to a local hospital.
Ozaukee County Sheriff Christy Knowles said the intersection had already been on officials’ radars as one of the most dangerous in the county.
“That is a problematic intersection,” she said. “We’ve had different and previous crashes at that intersection.”
Crash mapping data from a portal operated by the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Department of Transportation found five crashes with injuries at the intersection since 2010. That includes a crash that injured two people this past June.
Knowles said the position of the sun at the time of Monday’s crash made it difficult for an eastbound driver to see the stop sign. Trimberger said he was aware of previous concerns about seeing the stop sign on Jay Road when driving shortly after sunrise or right before sunset.
“I personally missed that [stop sign] my first year here,” Trimberger said. “I’m going to try to help as much as I can to get rumble strips, especially on the eastbound [lane], if not the westbound.”
Knowles said the driver of the Jeep was ticketed for failure to yield, but she added investigators had no reason to believe the Jeep’s driver was distracted by anything other than the sun.
“The driver is cooperating with the investigation. She let us use her phone and search her phone,” Knowles said. “There is no indication that calls were made, text messages were sent, nothing to that nature.”
The bus driver, identified as a 53-year-old from West Bend and an employee of the school district, suffered minor injuries and was transported to a local hospital.
Trimberger said the driver won’t be driving for a little while. The district has a backup school bus, but Trimberger said it would be difficult to replace the driver amid a shortage in the field.
Trimberger said the Northern Ozaukee School District immediately offered to lend one of its bus drivers to Random Lake to ensure all seven of the district’s routes will be covered.
“Really is a testament to a whole community when something like this happens, and we’re able to navigate it the way we did,” he said.
Students who were not injured were picked up by their parents at the scene of the crash.
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