HIGHWAY ACCIDENT REPORT - SCHOOLBUS ROLLOVER, STATE ROUTE 88 NEAR JEFFERSON, NORTH CAROLINA, MARCH 13, 1985

About 12:20 p.m. on March 13, 1985, an Ashe County School District schoolbus, driven by a 17-year-old student driver and carrying 22 students, ages 16 and 17, was traveling up an 8-percent grade on eastbound State Route 88 near Jefferson, North Carolina, when it went off the right edge of the road in a left curve and crossed the grassy shoulder. The 1980 schoolbus then rolled one revolution to the right and down a steep embankment and came to rest upright 24 feet below the road surface against two trees. There was no fuel leakage or fire. It was daylight, the weather was clear, and the two-lane roadway was dry. One student was seriously injured, one sustained moderate injuries, and the other 20 had minor injuries; the schoolbus driver was not injured. None of the bus occupants were ejected from the schoolbus. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the inattention of the 17-year-old student schoolbus driver to his driving task which resulted in the schoolbus leaving the road, loss of control, and a subsequent overturn of the schoolbus.

• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  Bureau of Accident Investigation, 800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20594
• Publication Date: 1985-12-10

Media Info

• Pagination: 31 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Alertness; Attention; Crash causes; Crash investigation; Crash reports; Drivers; School bus drivers
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver age
• Subject Areas: Highways; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00463098
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTSB/HAR-85/05, HS-039 845
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 31 1990 12:00AM