Four Go To Hospital—

School Bus, Truck

In Head-On Collision

By Andrew Gorosko

A full-size school bus, which was carrying 12 students to classes at Head O’ Meadow School about 8:49 am Friday, October 20, was involved in a head-on collision with a pickup truck on a rain-soaked, leaf-strewn Key Rock Road.

The heavy impact resulted in an unidentified boy and girl being transported to Danbury Hospital for medical evaluations, after which they were released. The transported children appeared to be about 8 or 9 years old.

The crash trapped both the pickup truck driver and the truck’s passenger in the 2001 Dodge Dakota, requiring that they both be extricated by firefighters.

Dodgingtown and Newtown Hook & Ladder volunteer firefighters went to the scene. A call for additional manpower resulted in some Botsford firefighters arriving to aid at the emergency.

The collision occurred on a curve at the top of a hill on the narrow, winding Key Rock Road. The crash took place about halfway between Key Rock Road’s intersections with Sugar Street and Hattertown Road.

The school bus was nearing the end of its student pick-ups for Head O’ Meadow School, which is on Boggs Hill Road.

Key Rock Road was closed to through-traffic for more than two hours while emergency crews attended to the injured and cleaned away the wreckage. Both vehicles were towed away.

The pickup truck was so heavily damaged that firefighters needed to cut off its cab roof to remove the driver and passenger from the wreckage.

Police patrol Officer Colin Richter, who investigated, provided an account of what occurred.

Motorist Luciano Correia, 34, of Fairfield, who was driving the pickup truck southward on the wet Key Rock Road, came around a curve at the top of the hill, crossed the road’s centerline and entered the northbound lane.

At that time, school bus driver Elizabeth Koschel, 45, of Evergreen Road, who was driving a 1996 International 3800 bus, attempted to swerve to the right to avoid a collision with the pickup truck, but was unable to get out of the way due to a steep embankment along the right road shoulder.

The two vehicles then collided head-on in the northbound lane.

Koschel was not injured in the accident, police said.

After arriving at the scene, firefighters pried and cut apart the pickup truck to get the two trapped men out of the vehicle, after which both men were transported to Danbury Hospital.

On the afternoon of October 25, Correira was listed in fair condition in Danbury Hospital.

Police issued Correira an infraction ticket for failure to keep to the right on a curve. Such a ticket carries an approximately $100 fine.

Pickup truck passenger Adriano Deandrade, 25, of Danbury was treated at the hospital and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

After the accident, emergency staffers placed the two injured schoolchildren on backboards and removed them from the bus via its emergency rear door. The children were alert and conscious.

Other children on the bus received icepacks to soothe the resulting aches and pains from the crash, officials said. Head O’Meadow School houses kindergarten through Grade 4 students.

After the accident, the children on the damaged bus were either released to their parents or were transferred to another school bus and transported to Head O’ Meadow School for classes, police said.

Anne Dalton, the Head O’Meadow School nurse, went to the school bus accident with school Principal Bill Bircher.

Ms Dalton said, “The kids were great. The bus driver was excellent. Her calm carried over to them. The kids all seem to be doing well. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. We notified every parent of kids on the bus. We called again when conditions had been assessed.”

Also, the school superintendent and school system’s transportation manger went to the accident.

Adults at the accident scene consoled the upset schoolchildren who were involved in the crash.

Dodgingtown Fire Captain Joe Masso, who was the incident commander, said firefighters made a good response to the emergency and exercised good teamwork at the scene. Firefighters spread absorbent materials on Key Rock Road to isolate automotive fluids that spilled onto the pavement in the collision.

The speed limit in the area where the collision occurred is 25 miles per hour, said Officer Richter. It is unclear how fast the vehicles were traveling when the accident took place, he said. Because the road was wet at the time of impact, the vehicles left no skid marks, which may be used as evidence in calculating vehicle speeds.

 On October 24, School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff said, “The bus driver did an outstanding job in trying to avoid an accident.”

Ms Koschel acted admirably in handling the aftermath of the collision, Dr Pitkoff said.

The police, fire, and medical staff who responded to the accident performed well in dealing with the collision, he added. “Overall, it was handled well,” he said.

Dr Pitkoff said the incident represents the most serious school bus accident that has occurred locally since he became superintendent in 2002.

“The kids handled it very well,” Dr Pitkoff said.

Most of the children who were in the accident attended classes at Head O’ Meadow School that day, he said.