The Congers Bus-Train Collision

A simulated emergency

One interesting detail that I couldn’t find a place for in this video is the story of Joan Fitzgerald – a local resident who was one of the first on scene, and who provided first aid to several injured students. She and her family lived in a house not far from the crossing. She was a member of the Congers Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and often worked as a first aid instructor. Indeed, the day before the accident, she had helped to organize an emergency training exercise.

This exercise involved a large number of volunteers, who donned makeup to mimic various wounds and injuries. Members of the Volunteer Ambulance Corp would then be tasked with treating them, just as they might in a major emergency.

Some of the kids from Nyack High School had participated as volunteers. One was 16-year-old Stephan Ward. He’d been made up with a “gunshot wound”, and had been declared “dead” when volunteers didn’t manage to find the exit wound in time. When the accident took place, Stephan was injured for real, and later passed away in hospital – a tragic echo of the training exercise that had taken place just the day before.

School bus safety

This isn’t the first story concerning a school bus that I’ve covered… and it won’t be the last either. Is that because the classic yellow school bus is an inherently unsafe type of vehicle, and prone to disasters like this?

Well, it’s complicated. In this case the poor construction of the bus offered little protection for its occupants. And in other accidents, the lack of emergency exits, or the poor repair of the bus was an issue. Even simple things like the lack of seatbelts and the low seatbacks common in school buses can make accidents worse than they would be if they involved a regular commuter bus.

So why aren’t school buses safer? They’re transporting vulnerable passengers, after all – so it seems like you’d want them to be as safe as possible. But the reality is, school boards often have to stick with older fleets because of budget limitations, school bus drivers are often distracted by their passengers, and getting professional drivers isn’t always possible.

It’s definitely a topic I want to explore more. And there definitely are other accidents to cover – so watch this space. I have a feeling that at some point I might have a whole playlist of school bus related stories.