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A dump truck driver who appears to have run a red light smashed into a Palo Alto Unified School District bus carrying elementary school students on Wednesday.
The impact forced the bus to go off the road and collide with a traffic light pole, an electrical box and a fire hydrant before it struck a tree, the California Highway Patrol said. Four El Carmelo Elementary School students and three Fairmeadow Elementary School students ranging from kindergarten to fourth grade were on the bus at the time.
The truck driver behind the wheel of a white Ford F-750 truck, which belongs to Cosmos Roofing Inc., was traveling north on Middlefield Road while the school bus was heading west on Colorado Avenue just before 8 a.m. when the collision occurred, according to the CHP. A preliminary investigation found that the truck driver ran a red light and broadsided the school bus.
A passenger in the Ford F-750 suffered multiple lacerations and was transported to the hospital after the truck veered off to the left and collided with two metal poles located at the driveway entrance to Wells Fargo Bank at 721 Colorado Ave. in the city’s Midtown neighborhood, CHP spokesperson Officer Art Montiel said.
One student suffered a small cut to the upper lip and another student was left with a cut above the eye. Both students were treated at the scene, he said.
The truck driver, a 46-year-old man from San Jose, was unlicensed and will be cited, Montiel said. The investigation is still ongoing.
Did the bus have seat belts? Were the occupants wearing seatbelts?
If not, why not?
It amazes me that such a simple thing as a seatbelt on a bus is not discussed. Children have to wear helmets on bikes, while skiing, on skateboards, etc. They have to be in car seats inside a car. Every occupant in a car must wear a seatbelt. Bus riders must also wear seatbelts.
The lack of respect for red lights today is unreal.
How incredibly scary for the driver and the kids. Even though the injuries sound minor, it must have been traumatic. And frustrating that the drive of the truck was unlicensed.
@ Bystander: PAUSD School Bus rules state:
“Students are required to wear seatbelts and be seated at all times”.
I have posted video of the aftermath. You can see a broken fire hydrant shooting water out from under the bus.
https://www.facebook.com/100007950576220/videos/pcb.2713282318946761/2713279622280364
@Eva. Thank you, I was not aware of that.
I did not know that school buses manufactured with seat belts. No other buses have them.
Why was this truck driver “unlicenced”? What? Cited at the scene? This man should be in jail!
@ “Why was this truck driver “unlicenced”? What? Cited at the scene? This man should be in jail!”
Most likely ‘unlicensed’ because he was an undocumented immigrant working for a company that hires them. Later release of the driver’s name and background will either dispel or confirm this speculation.
Those heavy trucks do not like to come to a complete stop because it takes a while to accelerate from a compound low/1st gear to posted speed especially if diesel powered.
Anyone who has ever been behind one at a traffic stop is already aware of this.
As a result, most dump truck and gravel truck drivers prefer to use the momentum regardless of whether they are approaching traffic signals or pedestrian crosswalks.
A good example is Foothill Expressway@280 in south Los Altos (Cupertino). The gravel trucks from the Permanente quarry getting on to 280 NEVER stop for pedestrians crossing near the cloverleaf and no intelligent person is going to argue with or challenge them.
The company that hired an unlicensed driver should be fined. Yesterday, I saw a driver go through a red arrow on California and El Camino.