Last Updated: 4:23 p.m.
A car rear-ended the Elk school bus at 8:15 this morning at Pine Grove Drive and Pittman Drive in Palm Coast. The driver of the car was shaken up but not seriously injured. None of the 19 students aboard the bus nor the driver were injured, a school district spokesperson said.
“He had his yellow flashing ambers on, and stopped, about to go red,” the district’s Jason Wheeler said of the bus driver, when the car, a Kia Optima, rear-ended the bus. The car sustained heavy front-end damage, the bus sustained light damage to its bumper. The collision was not so serious that anyone in the bus fell out of seats.
The driver of the Kia was Meghan Wilsey, who turned 23 last week, a resident of the P Section. “She was not paying attention at the time when she struck the school bus,” a Flagler County Sheriffs’s spokesman said: she had been eating a granola bar. Pices or crumbs had fallen on her clothing. She was brushing off the crumbs, and that moment of inattention proved just enough time to lead to the collision.
Wilsey was cited with careless driving.
“The student at Pittman didn’t leave the bus stop, they stayed right there. Kids on board were checked out, driver was checked out, everybody was fine, they brought in another bus, put them on the bus, took them to school,” Wheler said. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Superintendent Jacob Oliva and Vern Orndorff, his deputy, were at the scene and went to the school subsequently to check on the students.
Safety at bus stops has been a focus of city and school officials this year following a series of five wrecks involving students and vehicles, though as appears to be the case today, all but one of the wrecks involved driver error. The exception was a fatal wreck involving a 7-year-old child darting in front of a car at a bus stop in the W Section last October. The victim in that case was also a student at Wadsworth Elementary.
Palm Coast has been installing concrete pads at three high-trafficked bus stops, as a pilot project, designed to encourage students to stand off the road while waiting for their bus. But those safety measures have little bearing on circumstances such as this morning’s wreck.
Charlie D says
How in the heck can you rear end a BIG yellow school bus with lights flashing. Most likely on the cell phone. People please take your heads out of where the sun don’t shine.
Geezer says
How in tarnation do you rear-end a big yellow bus with lights flashing?
Maybe the driver has a medical condition to explain this.
Wow.
Curious says
Interesting, there is no mention of what the driver of the car was doing to be so distracted that they didn’t see that HUGE bright yellow school bus stopping in front of them. Texting maybe ……. was the driver ticketed?
The Truth says
Anyone who has driven in Palm Coast at any point in time knows exactly how something like this happens — distracted drivers. As a society, we are far too distracted by so many things. The most common distraction is a smartphone. Whether it’s texting, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other service we are always finding something to look at it even when we are driving. So many accidents occur because people just don’t simply pay attention.
Before anyone starts blaming ‘the new generation’ understand that older drivers are just as guilty in this. I see older drivers all the time glued to their phones and not paying attention. It’s absurd how distracted people are and I can’t imagine why else anyone would rear end a school bus except for a medical emergency. Thankfully, no children were hurt in this accident.
Concerned Citizen says
I imagine the driver of the car was following to close and was driving distracted. In my neighborhood I frequently see cars being quite aggressive with school buses. Some even disregard the stop sign when it deploys.
I don’t care how much of a hurry you THINK you might be in to get home or go to work.a child’s life is much more important.
SLOW DOWN, STOP and wait for the bus to move on. What’s a few minutes worth of waiting vs a lifetime of agony because of a wrong decision?
And BTW it’s the law to stop for a school bus with reds flashing and a sign out. Not an option.
woodchuck says
It should be a law to paint school buses a bright color like yellow for example.Then add some flashing lights .It could save lives.{glad bus driver and kids are uninjured}
Charlie D says
The medical condition is phonestuckinearandIdon’tcare. Look it up in the apple dictionary.
Carol says
She was brushing the crumbs of a granola bar that she was eating off of her clothes, read the article. I don’t see any mention of a cell phone
Paul Johnson says
I am 10 years old and I was at the back of the bus when it happen they say no body got hurt, but some people did they where just in shock so we did not feel the pain until we got to school. Maybe they should have payed more attention to they’re and my body’s and not what we said at that time.
IMO says
Rule of thump. Keep back 200′ from a School Bus.