Oak Ridge Today

School bus driver arrested following alleged assault on elementary student

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Matthew Bak

Note: This story was last updated at 9:30 p.m.

Oak Ridge police arrested a 73-year-old school bus driver Friday evening on an aggravated assault charge after he allegedly acted aggressively toward an elementary-aged student, the city said in a press release. Additional charges are pending, the press release said.

Matthew T. Bak of Oliver Springs was taken into custody Friday following an investigation into reports that he acted aggressively toward an elementary-aged student on the bus he was driving on Thursday evening, the City of Oak Ridge said in the press release. Bak’s actions caused all students on the bus to fear for their safety, the press release said.

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No injuries reported when car crashes into school bus

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No one was injured when a car crashed into an Oak Ridge school bus on Thursday, police said.

The two-vehicle crash was reported at about 6:55 a.m. Thursday in the eastbound lanes of Oak Ridge Turnpike at Salem Road.

School bus #64 was struck on the driver’s side near the rear axle by a car pulling out onto the Turnpike from Salem Road, the Oak Ridge Police Department said. [Read more…]

No injuries in minor school bus crash on Northwestern

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School Bus Crash on Northwestern Avenue on Nov. 10, 2015

No one was injured in a minor crash involving an Oak Ridge school bus and a pickup truck on Northwestern Avenue near West Gettysburg Avenue after 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. Pictured above from left are bus driver Walter Erbaugh, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Nathan Stinnett, and First Student Location Manager Diane Gibson. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

No one was injured in a minor crash involving an Oak Ridge school bus and a pickup truck on Northwestern Avenue on Tuesday afternoon.

The sideswipe collision occurred near West Gettysburg Avenue at about 4 p.m. Tuesday. It involved Bus 1950 from Woodland Elementary School.

There was only one student on the bus at the time, and another bus picked her up.

It’s been 20 months since an Oak Ridge school bus was last involved in a crash. On March 5, 2014, a car crashed into the front of a school bus that had stopped to pick up students at Hillside Road and Highland Avenue. No students were injured in that crash either.

Tuesday’s collision was two houses down from the site of a June 3, 2013, crash between a school bus and car at the intersection of Northwestern and West Gettysburg avenues. No children were reported to be injured in that crash either.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Copyright 2015 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Guest column: Adapting to change

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I can’t function without my…(fill in the blank)!

Cell phone? I survived into my early 30s without one, and never even realized it was a problem. I admit that now, having carried one for a number of years, it’s terribly disconcerting to be without. My parents can easily recall a time when most families had only one car—a concept that is unthinkable to most of us today. But faced with challenges, we adapt. We can, we must, and we will.

Families living in most communities outside Oak Ridge are accustomed to not having school bus service within a mile or mile-and-a-half of the school, so our current turmoil seems like no big deal to them. To us though, having to suddenly live without something we’ve always had (except for a brief period several years ago) feels like the end of life as we know it.

With the advent of social media, the volume of discontent and velocity of misinformation has grown exponentially. It is most unfortunate that a member of City Council chose to announce in Monday’s meeting that the School Board intended to cut transportation no matter how much money the city provided; that is incorrect, as evidenced by the fact that there was no reduction in transportation services in our budget passed on May 27 (first reading) and May 29 (second reading). [Read more…]

Ex-AC school bus driver indicted in May 2013 crash

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Information from WYSH Radio

A former Anderson County school bus driver has been indicted on charges related to a bus crash last year that injured four students.

Tammy Moore, 46, of Clinton was indicted by the grand jury on a charge of reckless endangerment and reckless driving in connection to a crash that occurred on May 21, 2013. Her bus, with 44 students aboard, was on Johnson Gap Road when the bus left the right side of the road and dropped off an embankment and turned over on to its side after traveling some 60 yards. [Read more…]

No students injured when car hits school bus

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No students were injured when a car crashed into the front of a school bus that had stopped to pick up students at Hillside Road and Highland Avenue on Wednesday morning, officials said.

Diane Gibson, transportation director for Oak Ridge Schools, said the driver was picking up two students when she heard a crash and then watched as a car hit the front of Bus 1937 from Willow Brook Elementary School.

“There was nothing she could have done differently,” the schools said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. [Read more…]

Fund forming to help family after student’s death as counselors meet with classmates

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Linden Elementary School

Linden Elementary School is pictured above.

Counselors met with students at Linden Elementary School this morning, and a parent-teacher organization is forming a fund to accept donations to help the family of a third-grader who died Tuesday, an official said.

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said there were five counselors from elementary and middle schools, and the school psychologist who serves Linden, at the west-end elementary school this morning.

“They have met with students who appeared upset or anxious,” Borchers said in a Wednesday afternoon e-mail. “I will tell you, though, it has been remarkably calm in my opinion.”

The boy was found unresponsive on a school bus on Wilberforce Avenue at about 4:10 p.m. Tuesday. An ambulance took him to Methodist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The boy has not been identified, and the cause of his death has not been determined. [Read more…]

Report: Teen driver didn’t see stop sign due to tree limbs before hitting bus

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Oak Ridge Preschool Bus Crash

No students were reported to be injured after a Monday afternoon collision between a school bus and a car in Woodland.

The 17-year-old driver who hit a school bus in Woodland on Monday afternoon said he did not see a stop sign at the intersection of Northwestern and West Gettysburg avenues due to tree limbs, and he failed to stop before colliding with the bus, authorities said.

The Clinton teenager estimated he was traveling at about 30 mph in a 1997 Volvo 960 sedan as he drove west on West Gettysburg Avenue just before the 2:16 p.m. crash, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department accident report.

The bus driver, Yvonnda Smith McNair, 60, of Oliver Springs, told ORPD Officer Leslie Miller that she was driving south on Northwestern Avenue when the Volvo failed to stop and hit the bus, owned by contractor First Student Inc. [Read more…]

No children reported to be injured in school bus crash

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Oak Ridge Preschool Bus Crash

No students were reported to be injured after a Monday afternoon collision between a school bus and a car in Woodland.

No children appeared to be injured after a Monday afternoon collision between a school bus and car at the intersection of Northwestern and West Gettysburg avenues in the Woodland neighborhood, authorities said.

However, a bus assistant may have hurt her shoulder, and she went to the hospital to be checked out, Oak Ridge Interim Superintendent Bob Smallridge said.

The yellow school bus, Bus #596, which is operated by contractor First Student, was carrying about 18 children from Oak Ridge Preschool at about 2:16 p.m. Monday when it collided with a red Volvo four-door sedan. The students were headed home after school. None were taken away from the crash by ambulance, Oak Ridge Assistant Fire Chief Josh Waldo said. [Read more…]

Video: Driver of school bus that crashed not forced off road

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Information from WYSH Radio

The driver of an Anderson County school bus that crashed last week has been suspended until further notice after the in-bus camera recording shows that she was not forced off the road by an oncoming car veering into her lane as she had originally told investigators.

Last Tuesday, the bus carrying 43 children overturned in a grassy field off of Johnson Gap Road. Immediately after the crash, driver Tammy Moore told investigators that she had swerved to avoid an oncoming car that had veered into her lane, causing the tires on the right side of the bus to leave the roadway. The bus traveled about 200 more feet before rolling onto its side. [Read more…]

Anderson County school bus rolls on side, three students possibly injured

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Note: This story was updated at 1:57 p.m.

An Anderson County school bus rolled on its side on Johnson Gap Road on Tuesday morning in the Dutch Valley community, and five students could have minor injuries, officials said.

There were 44 students on Bus No. 20, which transports students to Dutch Valley Elementary School, Clinton Middle School, and Clinton High School, said Jim Woodward, chief financial officer for Anderson County Schools. It crashed at Dutch Valley Road at about 7:50 a.m. [Read more…]

KPD arrests suspect in theft of school bus found in Anderson County

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The Knoxville Police Department on Friday arrested a Knoxville man suspected of stealing a school bus in Knox County that was later found in Anderson County.

The suspect, Hillman Greenlee, 61, “sold” the 1998 Blue Ribbon Coach Bus for $1,200 to another person while the owner of the bus was out of town, according to a statement from KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk. The value of the bus is about $2,000.

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