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2 bus drivers die in Iowa, New Mexico incidents

An Iowa school bus driver passes away after suffering a medical emergency during his route, but officials say that he pulled the bus over safely and no students were injured. The incident follows the death of another driver in New Mexico, where a bus went off of a road and down an embankment.

Thomas McMahon
Thomas McMahonExecutive Editor
April 11, 2013
2 bus drivers die in Iowa, New Mexico incidents

A bus driver for Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools passed away after suffering a medical emergency on Wednesday. The incident followed the death of a bus driver in Vallecitos, N.M., on Monday.

1 min to read


A school bus driver in Des Moines, Iowa, passed away after suffering a medical emergency on his route Wednesday morning.

Officials said that Arthur Lubbert, a bus driver for Des Moines Public Schools, pulled the bus over safely and no students were injured.

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Lubbert was pronounced dead a short while later at a hospital.

“On behalf of his colleagues at the school district, our condolences go out to his family and friends,” Superintendent Tom Ahart said. “Art was a well-liked driver who put the well-being and safety of the students on his bus first, which was true to the very end.”

Lubbert was a driver for Des Moines Public Schools since 2005.

The incident followed the death of another school bus driver in Vallecitos, N.M., on Monday. Authorities said that a school bus went off of a road and down an embankment, coming to rest against trees at the bottom of the decline.

The nine students on the bus were taken to hospitals. Police said that two of the students suffered major injuries — one had a broken back, and the other had a broken jaw.

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School bus driver Pat Valdez, 69, passed away. Police said on Monday that the crash was under investigation, and they were not yet sure what caused it.

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