Winning Now, Winning Later: How Companies Can Succeed in the Short Term While Investing for the Long Term

On February 16, 2012, about 8:15 a.m., near Chesterfield, New Jersey, a Garden State Transport Corporation 2012 IC Bus, LLC, school bus was transporting 25 students to Chesterfield Elementary School. The bus was traveling north on Burlington County Road (BCR) 660, while a Herman's Trucking Inc. 2004 Mack roll-off truck with a fully loaded dump container was traveling east on BCR 528, approaching the intersection. The bus driver had stopped at the flashing red traffic beacon and STOP sign. As the bus pulled away from the white stop line and entered the intersection, it failed to yield to the truck and was struck behind the left rear axle. The bus rotated nearly 180 degrees and subsequently struck a traffic beacon support pole. One bus passenger was killed. Five bus passengers sustained serious injuries, 10 passengers and the bus driver received minor injuries, and nine passengers and the truck driver were uninjured.

Major safety issues identified in this investigation were school bus driver fatigue, sedating prescription medications, medical conditions, and commercial driver's license medical examinations; truck driver speed, oversight of overweight commercial vehicles, brake maintenance, and final stage manufacturing air brake system installation; connected vehicle technology; and school bus occupant injuries and school bus crashworthiness. The National Transportation Safety Board makes recommendations to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; states of California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, and Texas; National Truck Equipment Association; National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services; National Association for Pupil Transportation; National School Transportation Association; School Bus Manufacturers Technical Council; National Safety Council, School Transportation Section; and Herman's Trucking Inc.