Dangerous road conditions caused four students and a driver injuries in a three-vehicle accident involving a school bus this morning in New Castle. Pennsylvania State Police report that a line of westward bound vehicles were travelling on Harlansburg Road (State Route 108) just before 8 a.m. when a 21-year-old woman from Gibsonia hit a slick patch of road and lost control of her vehicle.
Officials on the scene report that the woman's Volvo hit the back of a Honda CRV which was driven by an 18-year-old man from Slippery Rock. Upon the collision, the woman's Volvo crossed the center double-line and struck a school bus carrying thirteen children head on. The driver, a 63-year-old man from Ellwood City, was travelling eastbound on Route 108 and taking the children to Portersville Christian School. The collision took place less than a mile from the Gaslight Mobile Home Park.
Police say that the driver and four of the students were injured in the accident and taken to Jameson Memorial Hospital in New Castle to be treated. Among the injured school children were four students between the ages of seven and seventeen in grades eleven, six, four, and two. The 21-year-old woman driving the Volvo was cited on the scene for driving at an unsafe speed and the bus had to be towed away with serious front-end damages, leaving the remaining untreated children to wait for another school bus to take them to school.
Regardless of your vehicle's load out, when inclement weather abounds the only way to stay safe is to slow down and pay close attention to the traffic around you. While many carmakers build their vehicles to be especially effective when road conditions are less than enviable, what most drivers tend to ignore is that other drivers' cars do not possess the same capabilities. This winter is set to be one of the more harsh we've had in quite a while, so please take your time when navigating the roadways of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Give yourself some extra time before you leave in the morning to remove the snow from your vehicle and expect your daily commute to be anywhere between ten and thirty minutes longer than it is most other times of the year. Taking the extra precautionary safety measures this season can mean the difference between tragedy and happy holidays.
Source: New Castle News, "Five injured in school bus crash" 10 December 2013