School officials in Ellettsville are looking into a Feb. 23 incident where an Richland-Bean Blossom School Corp. bus and an Edgewood High School student out for a run collided on Maple Grove Road.
Vaughn Moorman, 16, suffered a concussion and serious injuries to his left leg and foot when he encountered the school bus. It appears he may have collided with the bus in the 3:18 p.m. accident.
The bus driver, 74-year-old Fred St. John of Ellettsville, submitted to a drug and alcohol screen as required by the school corporation when a bus is involved in an accident.
“We expect the results soon,” said Matt Irwin, assistant superintendent at R-BB said. “We have no reason to expect anything like that is a factor.”
He said a substitute driver has taken over the route until the investigation into what happened is complete. Irwin said St. John has been an R-BB contract bus driver for more than 15 years.
St. John had finished his route for the day and no children were on the bus. Cameras inside the bus didn’t capture the collision, Irwin said. There are no exterior cameras.
According to a report by Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy Tryston Zeiser, St. John was westbound on Maple Grove Road, just west of Ridgeway Drive. St John said he drove into the eastbound lane to give some space to the runner on his right, who also was headed west.
St. John told the deputy that as the bus passed, the teen turned left as if he intended to cross the road. He ran into the right turn signal area on the front corner of the 2019 diesel bus.
Walkers and runners on a road are supposed to be on the side facing oncoming traffic for safety, but Moorman was running the same direction as traffic on the rural road.
A passerby stops to help
Lisa Biggs was eastbound on Maple Grove Road that afternoon when she saw a school bus stopped in the middle of the road ahead. Then she saw a boy in light-colored clothes lying on the pavement. She got out of her car, saw St. John behind the wheel and approached the bus.
“I came to the driver’s side window and asked if everything was OK and if we could help. He said, ‘That boy back there ran into my bus.’ He said he had called an ambulance.”
She said the flashing hazard lights and stop arms on the bus had not been activated.
Biggs and her partner went to Moorman, who she said was half conscious and on his knees, blood pouring from his nose and a gash in the back of his head. They helped him crawl to the side of the road, then found his glasses in the grass and his cellphone.
Moorman told Biggs his mom was in Florida and his dad might be at home. “I found ‘Dad’ in his contacts and called to let him know what had happened,” Biggs said.
While they waited for an ambulance to arrive, Biggs said St. John stepped off the bus and approached Moorman, angry. “He came back and was yelling, ‘You ran into my bus. This is your fault.’ The boy was crying and bleeding. He was shaken, and he said he didn’t know what happened. He thought he’d been knocked out,” Biggs said. “He kept apologizing to the bus driver.”
Bigg said the exchange was upsetting. “In that moment, that was inappropriate for a bus driver, or anyone, to be saying those things and yelling at a child injured and laying on the road. Compassion would have been better.”
School officials: Driver followed protocols
R-BB officials say St. John followed school district protocols after the accident. Cameras on board the bus recorded him using the vehicle’s radio to contact the transportation director, reporting his location and asking her to call 911 for an ambulance.
After that, “he got off the bus and went back and checked on the student,” Irwin said.
“The driver took the necessary steps to ensure help was on the way,” said Irwin, who was among several school officials who rushed to the scene. He said St. John “was upset himself about what happened. He may have been in shock over what had happened.”
Madalyn McKenney was in Florida for a long weekend when she got a call that her son had been hurt in an incident with a bus.
She arrived back in town Saturday and found Vaughn at IU Health Bloomington hospital being treated for head and leg injuries that will keep him off his feet and out of school. His marching band participation is over for the season and there'll be no Winter Guard.
His kitchen job at Pizza Pantry is on hold for awhile and he won’t be doing much driving after having his license for less than a month.
Teachers and administrators will make sure Vaughn has access to his school work and doesn’t fall behind, and his mom appreciates that. She said his plan to join the military when he graduates might be curtailed by leg and foot injuries that will require surgery and a lengthy recovery.
For now, he’s at home with his leg elevated. McKenney got him a corn snake for company and to keep him occupied. He’d been asking for one.
“We don’t know what happened, but I’m pretty upset that Vaughn, in the midst of it, was getting yelled at and blamed,” McKenney said. “We are going to pursue getting the recordings from the bus, to see what they show.”
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Edgewood student hurt in incident with R-BB school bus
