NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Public Schools Superintendent said he will work to provide safer transportation for students after an uninspected bus driven by an unpermitted driver flipped over on I-10 Wednesday, sending 15 children to the hospital.
NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis Jr. said that the school board has worked since last spring to ensure school-based staff were aware of the City’s inspection process, but that it obviously has not been enough.
“I have directed my team to explore options the district can take to increase bus safety, including, but not limited to, allowing only the highest quality bus operators to service our students, implementing additional policies around transportation, and demanding that schools and their bus providers actively work with the city to get buses inspected and compliant as the re-inspection process for buses starts again in February,” Henderson said.
City Safety and Permits Director Zach Smith confirmed the Hammond’s Transportation bus was driven by Chad Rodney, who had applied for a city school bus permit on Sept. 24 and was denied because he had a 2016 conviction for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation. The bus hit the curb on the High Rise and flipped when Rodney overcorrected, Smith said.
"We can’t say the incident was preventable -- we don’t know what the cause was — but …it was preventable to have a driver that was unpermitted and it was preventable to have a bus that was uninspected and unpassed," Smith said.
Asked how Rodney was allowed to drive one of his buses, Hammond's owner Mark Hammond said: "Well, if that was the case he shouldn't have been on the bus, but I have to look into those things."
Hammond’s also failed to get a large number of its fleet inspected after failing several city inspections, including one this summer when WWL-TV was on the scene — he quickly removed his buses and canceled the rest of his inspections that day.
Fifteen students were on the bus at the time of the crash. Paramedics took nine students to two different hospitals, where one student was listed in "serious condition" but stable. The other six students were picked up by their parents and guardians at the scene of the crash and taken to the hospital by them.
The bus was driving for James M. Singleton Charter School at the Dryades YMCA. School officials were at the hospitals all day visiting the injured students.
All students were released from the hospitals by end of day Wednesday.
“My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the students and families that were involved in yesterday’s incident,” Henderson said. “I want to let our families know the district will do all we can to work with the city and schools to make certain buses are inspected and operators are in compliance with city ordinances and board policy.”
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