What's Next After Bus Accident?

Parents still have questions after a bus accident on Indian Trail Road Monday morning.

According to Rockingham County Public Schools, the school bus carrying 63 students was traveling south on Indian Trail Road towards Montevideo Middle School as a car was traveling north.

The road is fairly narrow, and where the two vehicles were passing was more narrow than most places because of a telephone pole close to the road.

"In an effort to make room for the car, the bus, while going very slowly, clipped its side mirror on the telephone pole causing the mirror to crash into the school bus door and shatter the glass," explains Jim Slye, the Transportation Director for Rockingham County Public Schools.

This is the second accident on Indian Trail this school year.

In a similar setup during the first couple weeks of school, a bus driver veered off the road into a tree on a narrow part of Indian Trail Road to avoid hitting an oncoming truck.

After the first accident, RCPS asked the Virginia Department of Transportation to help out and now it's asking again.

"We are concerned, because I feel like, the last time we were called, we reacted and fortunately the land owners allowed us to cut the tree, because the tree wasn't on our property," says Don Komara, the Resident Engineer with VDOT.

While VDOT works from its end, RCPS will work to see what changes if any it can make to the route.

"We'll find out if there is a need to be on this road at all. If there isn't then you know, we'll make a change. There may not be anything we can do. We may have to stay on that road, but if there is anyway to keep from that road, we will," says Slye.

"In this case, we're going to look at the pole, the utility pole. We're going to contact them to see if it is somewhere in their maintenance to move it back and see how amenable they are to that. Then we'll have to contact the property owner because you just can't move the pole back without asking permission," says Komara.


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Elderly woman dies in car crash

HARPERS FERRY- An 87-year-old Harpers Ferry woman was killed and two other women were injured in a two-vehicle accident Monday afternoon on U.S. 340 North near Harpers Ferry.

Bettie Lee Bond was pronounced dead at Jefferson Memorial Hospital shortly after being transported by Jefferson County EMS from the accident scene, according to a news release issued by 1st Sgt. E.D. Burnett of the West Virginia State Police.

Bond was a passenger in a light blue 2000 Honda Civic driven by Elizabeth Auvil, 63, of Martinsburg.

According to the release, Trooper M.C. Harper of the West Virginia State Police was patrolling U.S. 340 North when he came upon a motor vehicle accident at the highway's intersection with Millville Road.

A yellow 2006 Dodge Charger was facing northwest and partially blocking one northbound lane of the highway, while the Civic was found facing southeast into a guardrail. Each car had sustained heavy damage, and the occupants of the Civic were trapped inside their vehicle, the release states.

Harper was able to administer first aid until EMS units arrived. Once the victims were extricated, Auvil was air lifted to Winchester Medical Center, while Bond was transported to Jefferson Memorial Hospital.

The driver of the Charger, Donna E. Sutch, 43, of Harpers Ferry, was treated by EMS at the scene.

According to police, Sutch was traveling east on Bakerton Road and was crossing U.S. 340 onto Millville Road, while Auvil was driving in a northbound lane of U.S. 340. The Civic crashed into the passenger's side door of Sutch's vehicle as she was crossing the road.

Police said Bond was not wearing a seatbelt.

Sutch was cited by police for failure to yield, police said.

Harper was assisted by Trooper T.S. Perry and Trooper C.J. Berry of the West Virginia State Police, along with Chief Donald Buracker and Patrolman M.T. Schul of the Harpers Ferry Police Department.


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