Indiana State Police have released findings of their investigation into the March 6 crash on State Road 350.
Indiana State Police photo.
(Aurora, Ind.) - Sun glare and speed are cited as factors which played a part in a Dearborn County school bus crash.
The March 6 wreck on State Road 350 was between a South Dearborn Community Schools bus and a Rumpke trash truck.
Indiana State Police released their report Thursday. It states 25 people were injured in the crash, 23 of them students. One student aboard the bus was pinned in their seat.
According to the 10-page report, bus driver Raymond Nies was blinded by the rising sun and driving too fast before rear-ending the garbage truck, which driver Brian Rumpke had stopped in order to make a trash pickup. The impact was hard enough to push the garbage truck forward about 40 feet.
The bus driver told a deputy that the sun glare prevented him from seeing the garbage truck, but oncoming traffic in the opposite lane of the two-lane highway prevented him from maneuvering around it.
The sun glare and oncoming vehicle claims were supported by another motorist who was traveling behind the bus at the time of the collision. That driver had to swerve to avoid striking the bus, instead wrecking into a mailbox along the highway.
Students told police their experiences in the bus crash. One student said he inhaled fumes as a fire extinguisher on the bus exploded. Another rider said he was "flung" into the seat in front of him. A student riding in a seat near the front of the bus was pinned inside until he could be extricated by first responders.
The bus driver has not been charged as Indiana State Police are still completing the investigation. The state police’s findings will be forwarded to the county prosecutor for review.
Troopers received a memory card from the school bus on-board camera from school district administrators, however, there was no video from the crash.
Accident investigators did analyze the bus driver’s and garbage truck driver’s cell phones. Neither device was being used at the time of the crash, the report states.
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