No serious injuries after school bus accident
No serious injuries were reported after a Canton school bus carrying 35 First Grade students from Canton Central Schools went off the road this morning near the intersection of Route 3 and Route 56. The bus was on its way to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake.
One student was taken to the local hospital after complaining of blurred vision. The bus driver also sought medical attention.
Canton school superintendent William Gregory said earlier reports the bus overturned were inaccurate.
He said it appears the right front wheel of bus veered off the road around 9:30 Friday morning. The bus then went off the road, through a ravine and came to a stop atop a roadside berm.
Parents of the students involved have all been notified.
Superintendent Gregory said the students are stopping for lunch at the Thirsty Moose Pub in Childwold.
Here is the audio of my brief talk with Superintendent William Gregory:
Superintendent also posted a message that no injuries [were reported] – edited by Jonathan at NCPR
this is a bit closer to what really happened and quite different from superintendent’s story!!!!
http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/95625144.html
Before you accuse anyone of lying, check the link you posted. It was originally posted at 1 pm and then updated at 6:45. Probably because they had more information. Did it occur to you that maybe the Superintendent was receiving updated reports throughout the day from state and local police? As to notifying parents, how long do you think it takes to call 120 parents – 10 or 15 minutes?
Well we know more now and this is a very interesting and disturbing situation. Hopefully the District was not aware of this bus drivers admitted use of prescribed prescription pain drugs. He claims that they were aware and it was on his medical forms.
We will see.
We can all be very thankful that no one was seriously hurt.
Being a parent of one of the affected children I would to exspress my thoughts on this event. We were not notified until 1140am (fri). Which in itself is a little disheartening. And then to find out the bus driver was on medication while driving this bus load of CHILDREN. This is the crux of the concern… The school district allowing a school bus driver under the influence of drugs to drive these KIDS over such a long distance (Actually any distance is of concern). And for this bus driver to have the audacity to take the lives of these kids and teachers into such little account while he is on drugs is CRIMINAL to say the least. It’s proposterous, its pathetic… The school Superintendent, the bus garage heirarchy and the driver should be held accountable for there disrespect of the trust, we as parents put into them, to provide a SAFE enviroment and the lack of well being our children are shown.. There is only one positive asspect to this display of incompetance. The complete professionalism-were with all -and LOVE shown by the teachers involved- Miss Stacy Bergan ,Ms. Paula Jones and Ms.Morrow and the parents onboard. Thank you so much for keeping our Ben safe and comforted during this traumatic event for him. We owe you so much. As for the Superintendant, Bus Garage leadership, and bus driver- you owe the district the respect to show competant leadership with our kids. Our kids are special . And we LOVE them. Maybe that should be a requirement for these positions.
Two things:
1) I spoke with Superintendent Gregory around 11:AM Friday morning. As has been pointed out, more information about the accident came through his office later in the day.
2) I edited one remark on this post because I could not corroborate the allegations made.
From the information I can gather now:
-Regarding the bus involved in the accident, no one on it was seriously injured
-We need to know much more about allegations that the driver’s ability to operate the bus was impaired
-We also need to know whether district officials were aware of the driver’s alleged use of prescription medication
-No one I’ve spoken to is treating this lightly
We’ll get more information. If you have specific questions or concerns you want addressed by district officials, please send them to me at:
[email protected]
Or, you can call my direct number:
(315) 229-5360
Or, you can post your questions here by commenting. But please do not make any allegations of illegal or unethical behavior. This simply is not the place for it.
Thank you-
Jonathan, NCPR
Thanks Jonathan.
According to the Watertown Times, the bus driver has been charged with aggravated DWI, is this true?
I would be interested in what the district policy is surrounding the use of prescription pain medication for bus drivers? I know in this case the Times quoted the driver as saying that he was taking prescription medications for his back and that the district was aware of this. But I don’t think he said what the medications were.
thanks.
This particular news situation highlights an issue with the 24/7 news feed we all get now. We watched as this story unfolded throughout the day.
The story was first reported by NCPR in this blog with as much information as they had at the time. Slowly, as the day went along, more information came in and was reported by several news agencies along the way. In “the old days” a news agency worked on gathering as much information as could be by deadline which may be the 6 o’clock news or when the paper has to go to print or when the morning news comes on, and then put together a cohesive story after deliberating on all aspects of the information that has been gathered. Now we get to watch (and participate) as a news agency goes through the process of gathering the information and deciding what is released and when it is released, which used to take place in the newsroom before it was publicized on the evening or morning news or next day’s paper.
I agree with Mark that some of the comments on this post reflect the unfolding of the story over time.
But there is anger in some comments (on this post and others) that also has to be acknowledged.
In this case, some commenters believe the bus driver and the district put the First Graders and other passengers at risk. This is one opinion, but I want to stress (again) it is still only an opinion. It’s an allegation. Even though the driver reportedly admitted using prescription drugs, it’s still an allegation until tests are confirmed and a court renders a decision.
What surprised me was another opinion that the bus driver and district officials intentionally put those kids at risk. This, obviously, goes way beyond what we know and beyond any allegations or charges leveled by police.
I want to be clear here: I am not in any way condoning any action that put kids at risk. I’m simply saying that we don’t know what transpired.
The rush to angry judgments seemed to me to border on defamation of character. This is much more than unhelpful, it’s also illegal.
I understand that fear over real or imagined threats can make us do things that our rational selves would never allow. If I had a kid threatened by an irresponsible or stupid adult, I’d probably swing first and think later.
But this is a blog and punches won’t connect. Libel, however, and libel charges are very real and costly to those found guilty.
One quick fix: use the word “if” more often.
Here’s an example:
“If that guy is found guilty, he should pay.”
Most people would agree, but if they don’t it’s likely to lead to an interesting debate. And that’s what blogs should do.
Jonathan, NCPR
This statement was released today (Monday, June 7) at 1:48:PM:
FOLLOW-UP STATEMENT REGARDING CANTON SCHOOL BUS DRIVER RICHARD F. STEMPLES
Canton, NY, June 7, 2010: Canton Central School District has received permission from bus driver Richard F. Stemples to publicly disclose the facts that, as required by state law and the school district, he underwent and passed random drug and alcohol tests administered to him in March and May 2010, and that he underwent and passed a mandatory comprehensive physical examination during which he disclosed all of his prescription medications to the examining physician in February, 2010.
As you can see by the statement just posted, New York State sets the regulations for bus drivers, physicians decide if drivers are “fit” medically. I bet it would surprise people to know that NYS does not have an age limit for drivers.
It all comes down to what was in his system and the toxicology reports should show that.
For example even if someone is prescribed Viocdin for pain they should not be driving a school bus taking a narcotic. Of course many many prescription drugs for back pain are not narcotics. So we will have to wait and see. I don’t think anyone did anything intentionally or possibly even foolishly wrong. However it is a very interesting case particularly with so many people today taking so many different kinds of prescription drugs.
There are two discussions going on here – the condition of the bus driver at the time of the accident along with the district’s response to it and the broader issue of how we weigh in on issues brought up in an on-going news story, such as the condition of the driver and the district’s response.
I agree with Jonathan and he makes the point that I had kinda been leading to – the 24/7 news feed results in initial information often not being complete. With that often comes a rush to judgement. In “the old days” as I put it, the news agency gets to work through the process by itself and then produces a final story, one that has all the facts known and checked (at least up to the point of deadline) by the time the public gets it. With that process there is not as much of an opportunity to make an uneducated judgement by the public as can happen when the news gathering is in process.
I think this is a challenge and can be a problem at times in the 24/7 news feed of today. We, the public, are now, in some ways, a part of the process and need to be especially careful in how we post our thoughts/opinions, even specific information we get, in something as public as a blog like this. I think news gathering agencies also need to be especially careful in the decision as to when to go public (such as posting on a news web site) with a story. When is there enough information gathered to go with a story?… can it be too soon? I’m not suggesting that Jonathan’s post about the bus accident was too early, but it is an issue not to be taken lightly – there are some “news” agencies out there that don’t have the same standards that NCPR does for this stuff.
“24-hour news” has not improved the actual reporting of news. Everyone is so anxious to fill the time and to be the firstest with the mostest that quality has suffered greatly.
Perhaps there was something wrong with the bus & the driver saved the kids lives by his actions. Maybe we should be thanking him not berating him.