Bus crash response overwhelmingly positive following 'worst nightmare,' PSB says
CBC
Officials with P.E.I's Public Schools Branch (PSB) say they have received an overwhelmingly positive response from all who were involved in Friday's school bus accident.
Three children were transported to the hospital after Bus 49 flipped on its side while transporting 27 students from Westwood Primary School and Eliot River Elementary. On Monday, police said the bus collided with an SUV but they were still working to determine what happened.
"Friday was our worst nightmare," said Dave Gillis, PSB's director of transportation. "We are so very grateful for the level of cooperation and the amazing response we received from all parties involved."
While there is an official investigation ongoing — where the PSB will determine if anything could have been done differently to prevent similar occurrences in the future — Gillis said the initial findings leave them "very pleased.
"I need to emphasize how happy we are with the level of response from our school bus drivers. There were phenomenal first responders: fire, police, medical were amazing. The staff at East Wiltshire School opened their hearts and their arms to those kids," he said.
"Transportation and Highway Safety professionals were great. Members of the general public were there to help. The students themselves were consoling each other and maintaining a degree of calm."
Gillis said the protocol in these scenarios is "all hands on deck.
"Our immediate concern today is for the well-being of the students and our drivers, and not just those on the bus but in the SUV as well. We're also concerned for all the other drivers in the area that supported, and the other support personnel that were involved," he said.
"This morning, we had trauma counselors and counselling consultants at the impacted schools. For parents, we have directions on our website and where they can go to look for information regarding trauma, including the trauma they may have experienced themselves through all of this."
The PSB also had a debrief session with school bus drivers Monday.
"The kids have responded well. Most were on buses again this morning and so far so good," he said.
Gillis said the department of transportation will now assess the condition of the bus to determine if it can be fixed or if it has to be replaced.
Though P.E.I. school buses do not have seatbelts for kids over 40lbs, the director of transportation said seatbelts may actually have been a hindrance in this accident.
"I do not feel seatbelts would have helped. Matter of fact, we would have probably had kids hanging from them, if you consider the bus being upside down, trying to evacuate them and having to cut the belts and catch the kids as they fall," he said.
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