Report: Indiana School Bus Driver Speeding Before Crash With Garbage Truck

DEARBORN COUNTY, Ind. — The crash report released by police on the March 6 crash between a school bus and garbage truck that injured 21 people finds that the bus driver was speeding and experienced a glare from the sun, WLWT reports.

As previously reported, 21 people, including 19 students, were injured after a school bus collided with a Rumpke garbage truck that was stopped on State Road 350.

Investigators said the bus driver told them he couldn’t see the garbage truck because of the sun and that when he tried to go around it, another vehicle was in the oncoming lane, according to WLWT. A motorist driving behind the bus said in the report that he was going about 50 mph before the crash, the news source reports.

Police said in the report that the bus should have been traveling slower because “speed shall be restricted as necessary to avoid colliding,” according to WLWT. The report also shows that as the bus approached the garbage truck, the road curved, and as the bus hit the truck, it pushed the truck forward 40 feet, the news source reports. The report said troopers retrieved cellphone information from both drivers and found no activity at the time of the crash, and that the garbage truck recorded video of two different viewpoints before and after the impact, according to WLWT.