Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its final report after investigating a 2024 school bus rollover in West Virginia.

Accident Summary

On the afternoon of Monday, March 4, 2024, a 2022 IC full-size school bus operated by the Calhoun County Board of Education was traveling south on State Highway 16 (SH 16) near Millstone in Calhoun County, West Virginia. It had 19 students on board, plus the driver. As the driver navigated a left-hand curve, the bus departed the right side of the paved roadway and entered an earthen drainage channel with a culvert along the right side of the road.

The right-front tire struck the end of the culvert; the bus then struck a fence and began to yaw counterclockwise as it re-entered the roadway. The right-rear tire struck the culvert, and the bus rolled a quarter turn onto its right side before coming to rest across both lanes of SH-16.

Three students on the bus sustained serious injuries, 16 students sustained minor injuries, and the driver was not injured.​

NSTB Findings

The agency found that ​​at the time of the crash, the school bus driver was impaired by alcohol, which resulted in his loss of control. He had a blood alcohol concentration reading of 0.161 grams per deciliter.

"We found that implementing alcohol detection systems on school buses can prevent alcohol-impaired driving by school bus drivers," the agency said.

The investigation found that alcohol impairment among school bus drivers occurs with concerning frequency. A Stateline study found that from 2015 through 2019, 118 school bus drivers nationwide were cited or arrested for operating a bus while impaired by alcohol, drugs, or a combination of both.

NTSB also noted that active and passive alcohol detection technologies already exist that can prevent a vehicle from operating if driver alcohol impairment is detected. These systems are being used successfully on school buses in parts of Europe. As a result, the NTSB recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration require all new school buses to be equipped with vehicle-integrated alcohol detection systems.

But there's another component to this accident and NSTB's findings.

"We also found that unbelted bus passengers were injured from impacting other occupants and the school bus interior during the rollover sequence," NTSB said. "Lap/shoulder belts, had they been installed and properly worn, would have provided the best protection for the students by keeping the occupants within the protective seating compartment."

The agency has previously spoken out that seat belts, when used properly, can help prevent fatalities, especially in side impact and rollover crashes like the Millstone crash. "In these types of crashes, the compartmentalized seating design of large school buses alone may not prevent injuries because unbelted children can be thrown from their seating area, strike other occupants or hard surfaces, or be partially or fully ejected from the bus. In both the Millstone, West Virginia, and the Dale, Texas, crashes, the unbelted students were thrown about the interior of the bus, resulting in the increased risk of injuries and ejections."

As part of the investigation, the NTSB reiterated its recommendation that West Virginia require passenger lap-shoulder belts on new large school buses and called on the state to establish enforceable procedures to ensure students use the seat belts properly on every trip.