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Bus driver suspended after wreckSep 26, 2011 (The Robesonian - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A school bus driver for the Public Schools of Robeson County has been suspended from that job following an accident on Friday that injured six people, according to Raymond Cummings, transportation director for the school system. According to Trooper Stephen Hunt of the state Highway Patrol, Estelle Baker, of 2896 Evergreen Church Road, Pembroke, was driving school bus No. 168 west on Deep Branch Road at about 3:15 p.m. on Friday when it was struck while turning left onto N.C. 710 by a Dodge Dakota .w Hunt said that Baker was cited for failing to yield the right of way at a stoplight at the intersection. Cummings said two students were taken to Southeastern Regional Medical Center but did not appear seriously injured. Baker has been suspended "until further investigation," he said. "Any time an accident like that where the driver's cited, we suspend them until further investigation," he said. Hunt said the Dakota was being driven by 18-year-old Jeremy Allen Jones, of 4450 East White Pond Road in Fairmont, and a student at Purnell Swett High School. Hunt said a passenger in Jones' vehicle, Emily Locklear, also a student at the high school, was taken to Southeastern Regional Medical Center, but she did not appear to be seriously injured. Damage was estimated at $2,500 for each vehicle. In a separate school bus-related accident that occurred earlier on Friday, James Gaddy, 80, of Gaddy Road in Fairmont, was given a ticket for not decreasing speed to avoid colliding with a vehicle, according to Lumberton police Capt. Ertle Jones. According to Cummings, school bus No. 171 was headed south on N.C. 41 at about 6:50 a.m. on Friday when it stopped near Cliffwood Golf Course to pick up a student. Jones said Gaddy's northbound pickup truck struck an SUV that had stopped for the bus and pushed the SUV into the school bus. Cummings said three students on the bus and the driver of the SUV were transported to Southeastern Regional Medical Center. Cummings estimated damage to the front bumper of the bus to be about $1,500. He believed the SUV was destroyed. ___ (c)2011 The Robesonian (Lumberton, N.C.) Visit The Robesonian (Lumberton, N.C.) at www.robesonian.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |