Both drivers ticketed in school bus fender bender

By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer

February 10, 2009 10:40 pm

— OTTUMWA — It’s true that “accidents happen,” but when kids are involved, the public tends to pay attention.
Police have completed their investigation of a crash last week involving a school bus and a car. No one was injured, though the car’s owner claimed it was not drivable.
“Our driver was ticketed,” said Jerry Kjer, co-owner of Southern Iowa Transit. “The other driver was ticketed, too, for obscured vision from her windows.”
The Ottumwa school district contracts with the company to transport students; nearly every yellow school bus in town is owned by SIT. The district also has students who ride Ottumwa Transit buses.
Between the city and private buses, Ottumwa Superintendent Jon Sheldahl said thousands of children are transported each day, and transported safely. He knows sometimes, something will happen, and in those cases, he communicates with the bus company.
“We were notified,” he said. “Jerry filled us in on the nature of the accident and reassured us that all the state procedures were being followed.”
The Iowa Department of Education will review a report, as will the Iowa Department of Transportation.
And the federal government was involved, too, Kjer said, due to the specific nature of the accident. They ordered the bus driver to undergo immediate drug and alcohol testing.
Kjer said he was proud of the way his driver conducted himself at the scene and later.
“I asked him if he was [feeling OK] about going to the test, and he said, ‘Jerry, I want to. I don’t want there to be any question.’ All tests were negative.”
Kjer claims when the accident happened, the bus had just come to a complete stop and the driver looked both ways, didn’t see any traffic and that people there confirmed the bus stopped. The other driver was parked at a curb near the intersection, didn’t have a stop sign and pulled out after the stopped bus began moving.
“I think there was mutual fault,” Kjer said. “The best news from our perspective is there were no personal injuries. I could certainly understand how it happened. ”
He said he isn’t mad at his driver, but that employees will know how to avoid that situation in the future. However, he added, the kink at the intersection of Milner and Ferry Streets makes the area more dangerous.
Sheldahl said parents expect educators to protect youngsters like they were their own.
“I don’t think anybody has to worry about their kids,” he said. “I have great confidence in Southern Iowa Transit and Ottumwa Transit.”
Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.