One child hurt in Granite City bus crash captured on home surveillance video
A child on a Granite City school bus was injured when the bus collided with four parked vehicles in a crash that was recorded on a Granite City resident’s home surveillance camera.
The Granite City Fire Department said the child was transported from the scene with minor injuries sustained in the crash reported about 9:30 a.m. Monday in the 2200 block of Lee Street.
The child’s condition was not available Thursday.
Granite City School District 9 declined to release information about the number of students on the bus or the nature of any injuries.
“The safety of our students remains our number one priority. Out of privacy and respect, we cannot disclose health information on any of our students,” the district said in a statement.
The surveillance video shows the bus sideswipe two parked cars before hitting an SUV and another sedan before stopping.
First Student Inc. contracts with the school district for bus services and the company said in a statement the bus driver “is no longer employed by First Student.”
The statement did not indicate whether the driver was fired or resigned. It also did not list how many students were riding on the bus.
“We, too, are disturbed by the performance captured in the video, as it does not reflect our dedication to safety or the rigorous training our drivers undergo,” First Student said in the statement.
A representative from the Granite City Police Department could not be reached for comment about whether charges were filed against the driver.
A police report states the bus driver was distracted by a student, according to KTVI-Channel 2.
The video shows the bus hitting two parked cars on the side and then hitting the front end of an SUV, which was pushed onto the top of a Ford Mustang parked behind the SUV.
The video was recorded by the surveillance system in Alyssa Wells’ home.
Wells was home Monday when she heard a crash and then looked at her recording.
“It showed me a preview and on the preview, my boyfriend’s SUV was up in the air so … I ran outside after that to see what was going on,” Wells said.
The first car that got hit by the bus belongs to Wells’ neighbor, the second car, a Lexus, belongs to Wells; the third vehicle, a GMC Terrain, belongs to Wells’ boyfriend; and the fourth vehicle was Wells’ Mustang.
She had received the 2007 Mustang GT from her mother, who first bought it when she graduated from nursing school. And Wells, who is pregnant, had hoped to hand down the sports car to her child. But she fears that the car is going to be reported as a total loss by the insurance company and she’s saddened that she won’t be able to pass the car on.
