Three-Vehicle School Bus Accident Leaves Woman Hospitalized

By Andrew Gorosko

A local woman was reported in fair condition Thursday morning in Danbury Hospital, following a school bus accident May 3 on Queen Street, in front of Newtown Middle School.

The bus was transporting 30 St Rose School students home from school. The children range in age from 5 to 14, and are in Kindergarten through Grade 8. Several children received minor injuries.

Louise Mularcik, 80, of 22-D Nunnawauk Meadows, Nunnawauk Road, is the patient in Danbury Hospital. Police said she received head and ankle injuries in the three-vehicle accident.

Besides Ms Mularcik, student Greg Matthews, 12, who was a bus passenger, was transported to Danbury Hospital, where he was treated and then released.

Police said Ms Mularcik was driving a 1998 Buick Century sedan eastbound on Lorraine Drive about 2:42 pm Thursday, May 3, before she entered Lorraine Drive’s intersection with Queen Street in front of Newtown Middle School.

In entering the intersection, the Buick pulled directly in front of motorist Gregory D. Williams, 17, of 92 Head O’ Meadow Road, who was driving a 1996 Ford Taurus northbound on Queen Street, police said.

Williams applied the Ford’s brakes and swerved to the left in attempting to avoid a crash, but the two autos collided, police said.

The Ford struck the Buick in the Buick’s rear passenger side. The Buick then spun around on the road, striking the school bus, which was traveling southbound on Queen Street, police said. Theresa A. Cash, 44, of 3 Overlook Knoll, Sandy Hook, was driving the school bus.

The 30 schoolchildren were bounced inside the bus by the impact.

Newtown police, Newtown Hook and Ladder firefighters, and the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps went to the accident scene. The section of Queen Street in front of the middle school was closed to traffic for more than an hour as police investigated the collision and ambulance staff treated injured children. An air of calm prevailed among the children as emergency officials handled the multi-victim crash.

St Rose School Principal Donna DeLuca this week said that the day after the accident all schoolchildren returned to school.

“The following day things were back to normal,” she said.

The injuries received by the schoolchildren were minor, she said, adding that the collision had more of an upsetting effect on the children than a physically injurious one.

Following the crash, the children were transported back to St Rose School on another bus, where they waited for their parents to arrive.

School staff members and Ms DeLuca talked to the children and their parents to explain what had occurred, telling them that they had been involved in a three-vehicle accident in which one of the vehicles drove into the bus.

Ms DeLuca said town emergency service personnel handled the accident perfectly.

The Rev Robert Weiss, who is the pastor of St Rose Church, and the Rev Steve Gordon, pastor of Newtown Congregational Church, were at the scene to console the children and provide spiritual support, Ms DeLuca said.

Williams, who was driving the Ford Taurus, was treated at the scene for injuries.

St Rose School students who were treated at the accident scene include Dan Mortensen, 12; William Frampton, 12; Emma Canfield, 9; Jillian Thompson, 7; Jacqueline Ratzing, 12; and Danielle Mason, 12, according to authorities.

Police said they issued Ms Mularcik an infraction ticket on a charge of failure to grant the right of way at an intersection.

The crash caused traffic tie-ups in the area. Children from Newtown Middle School, who would normally board buses on the school grounds to leave school, instead walked to a shopping center on Queen Street where school buses waited for them.