Each year in Connecticut, there are hundreds of crashes involving school buses and it will continue to grow.
There have been 575 crashes involving school buses through Nov. 20 of this year, according to UConn Connecticut Crash Data Repository. In 2023, there were 805 crashes and 927 in 2022.
The most recent example was a crash on Interstate 84 in Manchester on Wednesday morning involving a Vernon Public Schools bus. Eight Vernon elementary school students were hospitalized after suffering minor injuries on the way to a field trip.
Vernon Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Joseph Macary said all eight children that went to the hospital were released on Thursday.
“You don’t want to ever be in a situation like that,” Macary said. “You don’t want any student to ever be in an accident or feel any type of harm.”
According to Macary, the preliminary police investigation allegedly indicated that the school bus was not speeding and traveling at 50 mph. He believes it was a case of distracted driving.
“How do you not see a big, giant, yellow school bus?” Macary said. “Someone must not have been paying attention.
“It’s happening more and more and it’s not good,” he added. “I don’t think it’s a school bus problem. I think it’s a societal problem. More than speeding or DUIs, I think distracted driving is the biggest problem.”
On Nov. 14, there was a serious crash involving a school bus in Derby, and late last month there was a hit-and-run crash involving a school bus in Hartford.
So far this year, the most school bus crashes were in January (19%). Of the bus-involved crashes in 2024, 452 were with other motor vehicles and 52 were buses vs. parked cars.
Connecticut Department of Transportation communications director Josh Morgan said there is a real crisis on the Connecticut roadways.
“People drive too fast and are distracted and driving impaired. Those are a recipe for disaster,” Morgan said. “There are too many crashes involving school buses, far too many, and that can result in students getting hurt. We don’t want to see anyone getting hurt on Connecticut roads.”
Morgan said many drivers in the state aren’t thinking about others and only themselves.
“Unfortunately, too many drivers are speeding and driving recklessly,” Morgan said. “Some are watching videos on their phone or sending text messages. We have others that have one too many drinks and then get behind the wheel. There are a lot of selfish people out there.
“I’ve seen it in my own travels that people don’t understand the rules of the road with school buses,” he added. “When the arm is out you have to stop. It’s far too often people are just driving by, whether they don’t see it or just don’t care about the rules.”
Since 2015, there have been 8,629 crashes involving school buses in the state. Eleven of those crashes were fatal and 46 had serious injuries. Two of the fatal crashes were in this calendar year, according to UConn crash data.
Within the last 10 years, there were over 1,000 school bus-involved crashes in 2015, 2016 and 2019, UConn crash data shows.
School bus transportation is one of the many duties of Southington High School director of operations Peter Romano oversees. He has been working in the position for 10 years and has noticed a spike in school bus-related issues over the last five or six years.
“I think we all know it’s gotten worse out there on the roads,” Romano said. “Phones have gotten so versatile, and our heads are in them all day and we are distracted by them, and it’s gotten increasingly bad on the roads.”
Southington sub-contracts New Britain Transportation for its school buses. Romano said he is in regular communication with them and receives reports about drivers ignoring bus stop signs.
“The drivers are good at writing down license plates, and there are cameras everywhere,” Romano said. “This gives the police a better chance of tracking that car down. More than the distractions, the biggest problem is people don’t have any patience.
“A lot of times, the student isn’t outside yet, and the parent comes out the door and motions ‘one minute’ with an extended finger, so the bus doesn’t drive away. Then the cars behind the bus decide they want to go,” he added.
Romano, who monitors the two-way radio communication between the transportation company and the Southington Police Department, said at least biweekly there is a bus driver who is reporting a problem driver to authorities.
“We also get frequent calls that will sometimes email or call me saying they have witnessed aggressive driving around school buses and give us a license plate,” Romano said. “We pull the tapes from the bus. The cameras are intended for the inside of the bus, but they can catch what’s going on outside of it.”
Jean Cronin, executive director of the Connecticut School Transportation Association, believes that a number of the issues have a lot to do with distracted and reckless driving.
“A lot of people are driving past school buses when the arms are out,” Cronin said. “It’s quite frightening and could be tragic.”
Cronin said the Old Saybrook-based association, which represents more than 10,000 bus drivers, is constantly training its drivers about safety.
“Our drivers are very aware of the safety aspects of driving a school bus and the problems of the drivers around them,” Cronin said. “The buses are big and generally very safe, so when a car hits the bus, the car usually gets the worst of it, but people have to slow down and pay attention.
“We don’t hear directly from our drivers, but we hear from the company representatives that cars are passing buses with the arms out and generally cars are driving too fast and recklessly,” she said.
“People are going to have to get back into the habit of slowing down and driving safer,” Cronin added. “People need to be more cognizant of their speed. Law enforcement and a big ticket seems to be the greatest deterrent. I think that will help change behavior.”
According to the Connecticut State Police, the fine for violating Connecticut General Statute 14-279 — improper passing of a standing school bus — is $475. Violations in school zones or construction zones carry higher fines.
State police said they did not have independent statistics available on crashes involving school buses or the number of infractions/warnings issued for motor vehicle violations related to school buses because their data collection software is in the process of being updated.
“We rely on members of the public to inform us of reckless, erratic and aggressive driving behavior, especially in areas where a trooper is not immediately present to witness driving behaviors which may put fellow motorists at risk of harm,” state police said.
“When encountering drivers operating in a manner which poses a risk to public safety, we encourage witnesses to call 911 as soon as it’s safe to do so to provide the location and a description of the accused vehicle to our dispatchers so that troopers can respond and intervene in a timely manner.”
Morgan said if the public slows down and pays attention, the roads will be much safer for everybody.
“We need our law enforcement to help keep these drivers off the road, and it bears repeating that before you put the key in the car you need to think about your safety and the safety of everyone else,” Morgan said. “The numbers are startling, and this is happening on our roads.
“Stats don’t capture the ‘near misses’ which are also scary when you have to slam on your brakes and hold your breath,” he added. “That stays with you. Those ‘near misses’ in addition to the accidents, are happening every day and they aren’t without impact on people.”
