Truck hits school bus while avoiding dump truck

NORWICH – The New York State Troopers and the Norwich Fire Department responded to an accident involving a pick-up truck and a mini-school bus at 2:50 Tuesday afternoon.

A 1993 blue Ford Ranger t-boned an Oxford Academy mini school bus along Rt. 12 directly south of Fred’s Inn. Two people were injured, including the bus driver and the aide riding with the other two children inside the vehicle. Both the driver and aide were taken to Chenango Memorial Hospital by ambulance. Emergency crews could not comment on the extent of the injuries or identify the injured at the time. Both children were evacuated and examined by emergency crews before being released back into the school district’s care.



Police reported that, according to eye witnesses, the blue pick-up was traveling south on 12 when a dump truck made a slow left turn from B&B Cement. The driver of the pick-up, Richard G. Marhisai, 56, of Greene, told police his truck was experiencing difficulty with its brakes and after he swerved to miss the truck, he lost them completely. The pick-up went off the road to avoid the dump truck careening into the parking lot at Fred’s Inn, traveled through that lot parallel to Rt. 12 south, passing a storage facility and then struck the school bus as it was waiting to make a left turn onto 12.

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Reader Response

5 comments on this story

pbbls0503
October 14th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Driver and bus aide are doing good too.Nothing major wrong with either a few bruises and concusions.Driver has a broken collar bone.Thank god it wasnt worse...
Becky0001
October 10th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
That is good to hear about the boys. I am glad they are ok. Now if the driver and aide come out of this ok, then we have the best outcome from a bad situation. We can leave the finger pointing to the pros...aka. lawyers.
pbbls0503
October 10th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I am the parent of the two students that were on the bus.They are both doing fine.A little shaken up still.Both boys are old enough so it shouldn't affect them mental( they are 11 and 13).I am glad it wasn't worse....
norwichreader
October 10th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I hope the police investigate who did the most recent inspection on the vehicle.
Becky0001
October 10th, 2007 at 11:50 am
I hope the Driver and Aide recover fully and hope the children do not suffer and mental tramau as a result of this accident.
I have had the pleasure of having either a B&B cement truck, or else a B&B dump truck pull out of B&B's location on Rt. 12 right in front of me, with barely enough room to basically stop as they do not get up to speed very quickly. I have never had to lock up my brakes, but I would add the drivers of those trucks do push the safety margin, and they should not do that.
More than likely the truck driver was trying to get into the emergency lane on the southbound side which is what they usually do when they pull out, but because the school bus was at the end of the road next to Fred's he could not. The truck that hit the school bus had to either plow into the dump truck, or else do what he did. I am pretty sure he was not aware of the schoolbus at the end of the road until after he made his choice.
Ultimately, the pickup should have skidded into the truck, or else been able to stop. Then again, the truck driver should have been more aware of the situation and not pulled out until the roadway was clear. It is probably not illegal to pull out and cause cars to practically stop as they fall in behind you in a big truck. It is a bad use of judgement on the truck drivers fault to do that however.
All I can say is thank goodness things weren't worse then they appear to be at this point.
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