Collier, Lee school bus crashes up, but drivers not always to blame

May 30--NAPLES, Fla. -- Last year, Thonax Herard backed into two school buses in the Collier County parking compound.

Over the last five years he has also crashed into two cars, hit a tree in a Winn-Dixie parking lot, knocked into a pole in the East Naples Middle School bus loop, hit mailboxes as he was pulling away from a bus stop and struck another bus's mirror. In all, he's been involved in 10 crashes or incidents and was found at fault in nine, receiving 24 points from the Collier County School District along the way.

He also received a speeding ticket in Lee County in 2008 and was cited in 2013 for violating a traffic control device.

Yet Herard, 52, continues to drive a Collier County school bus, transporting children to and from Calusa Park Elementary, East Naples Middle and Golden Gate High.

Collier County School District bus driver Thonax Herard drops Calusa Park Elementary School students off in the Plantation subdivision on Thursday, May 7, 2015, in East Naples. (David Albers/Staff)

School bus accidents are increasing in Southwest Florida, and drivers like Herard contribute disproportionately those crash tallies, a Daily News analysis of five years of crash data from Collier and Lee counties shows. As the school year comes to a close, bus crashes are at a five-year high, with at least 262 involving Collier and Lee school buses, the analysis shows.

Click here to see an interactive graphic showing school bus crashes by county

That's more than one accident every school day, with a noticeable spike recorded during the first four months of this year, according to the crash data.

Most of this school year's crashes were minor: buses clanking mirrors in the school bus loop, knocking over mailboxes and basketball hoops, hitting gate arms at the entrances to private communities. But they also include a man who died after striking a Lee County school bus that ran a stop sign in September and a bus driver who was arrested after striking a bicyclist in Cape Coral in November (the hit-and-run charge was not pursued due to a lack of evidence).

"It's not the bus. It's the people driving the bus," said Bona Thomas, 71, a former Palm Beach County school bus driver whose son, Ralston Thomas, 40, died after he hit the Lee school bus that ran the stop sign in Fort Myers.

In February, Thomas filed a lawsuit against the district alleging the school bus was driven in a "negligent manner." The driver, Agnes Thompson, 66, has since resigned. It was her only bus crash over the last five years, according to the data, but court records show she had been ticketed twice in Lee County since 2002 for failure to obey a traffic control device.

Ralston Thomas died of "cardiac dysrhythmia" brought on by the physiological stress resulting from the crash, an autopsy said. The district declined to comment on the case.

However, the Daily News analysis showed that crashes where bus drivers crashed into another vehicle or bus are basically flat in Lee County and down year-over-year in Collier. The increases have generally come from other drivers hitting school buses or smaller crashes involving buses hitting inanimate objects.

Click here to see an interactive graphic showing school bus crashes in Collier and Lee by year

District officials peg the primary cause of the increase in bus crashes to more buses traveling roads with more traffic.

"You have increased traffic, the same road infrastructure, more people, more possible accidents," said Robert Morgan, Lee Schools executive director of transportation.

The Collier County School District recently tightened its hiring practices after one of its substitute drivers plowed through traffic and caused a seven-vehicle wreck in February. The changes had been in the works before the crash as part of scheduled policy revisions, according to the district.

Through April, Lee school buses had been in 171 crashes a five-year high, according to the most recent data available that did not include the last month of the school year. The Daily News only included crashes during the school year, August through May, in its analysis.

The first four months of 2015 brought a noticeable spike in Lee: 81 crashes, up from 57 during the same time period in 2014.

The Daily News counted 40 crashes through March of this school year in which Lee County bus drivers struck another vehicle (discounting minor incidents where buses bumped mirrors), with two months left of school, or about the same number of accidents bus drivers caused through each of the previous four school years. The majority appear to be fender benders or buses striking other buses in the district compound. No students were seriously injured in any of the crashes.

But they also include at least two bicyclists being hit by buses (neither fatal). Lee drivers received 14 citations this school year for things like careless driving, following too closely, improper lane change and running a stop sign in the case of Thompson, the driver whose bus Ralston hit.

Click here to see a spreadsheet of Lee school bus accidents by driver

The Lee County school district has video cameras on most of its buses, but they are primarily used to record students for disciplinary purposes, administrators said.

Collier buses, which all have cameras, have been in 91 crashes through May 6, approaching a five-year high of 95 crashes during the 2010-11 school year, with the better part of a month left to record, the analysis shows.

Collier County has seen fewer crashes caused by its drivers this school year, according to the analysis. The Daily News identified 18 crashes through April where Collier bus drivers struck another passenger vehicle or bus, down from 30 crashes last school year. No students were injured in any of the wrecks.

Those crashes include the substitute driver who plowed through traffic and caused the seven-vehicle wreck on Feb. 4.

In that crash, Collier County dispatchers had received a call about bus No. 571 driving erratically in the hours before the crash. Around 5:30 p.m., the substitute driver, Dieujuste Dalusma, failed to make a right turn at Vanderbilt Beach and Livingston roads, drove over an island and a median before crashing into parked cars.

There were no students on board at the time, and no one was seriously injured. After the crash, the district stopped using the services of Dalusma, who was accused of driving carelessly or negligently.

Some school bus drivers continue to get behind the wheel despite a history of accidents.

The Daily News found 320 Lee and Collier school bus drivers who had been in multiple accidents since 2010. Many are no longer employed by the districts, which struggle to retain drivers who regularly leave for better paying jobs driving delivery trucks or construction vehicles.

"It can be hot, sweaty, grimy kind of work," said David Ogilvie, director of transportation for Collier Schools. "You have to be dedicated to stay."

At least 45 Collier drivers and 53 Lee drivers have had three or more accidents since 2010, led by Collier driver Thonax Herard, who has been involved in 10 and was found at fault in nine. Ogilvie admitted Herard is "not the best of drivers," but said he has been disciplined -- Herard has received written and verbal warnings, and was suspended without pay at least once --and is capable of overcoming his shortcomings.

Click here to see a spreadsheet of Collier school bus accidents by driver

Calusa Park Elementary School students exit a school bus in the Plantation subdivision on Thursday, May 7, 2015, in East Naples. (David Albers/Staff)

Parents at one of Herard's bus stops on Tara Circle in East Naples said they like him; he's good with the kids and communicates with parents if there are problems, they said.

"He talks with us all the time. He says, 'Hey, how are you? Good morning,'" said Maria Nabarro, who watches three neighborhood kids before and after school. "We appreciate him. He cares about the kids."

Collier County School Board Chairwoman Kathleen Curatolo declined to comment for this story. Attempts to reach leaders of the union representing Collier school bus drivers were unsuccessful. Board member Erika Donalds called Herard's driving record "very concerning."

"Certainly, if its my child on the bus I'd be concerned," she said.

Until recently, Collier would consider job candidates with up to 20 points on their record.

But under the district's updated safe driver plan, drivers face possible termination and job candidates won't be considered if they rack up five points or more in 12 months or seven points in the last three years on their license. They can also be terminated or won't be considered for a job if found guilty of more than a dozen specific infractions, including driving under the influence, causing an accident resulting in a fatality, reckless driving and using a wireless communications device while operating a motor vehicle.

In Lee County, drivers can be terminated if they rack up 10 or more points over a three-year period, according to the county's safe driver plan.

Lee County does not consider applicants with two serious traffic violations (speeding 15 mph or more, careless or reckless driving, etc.) within the past three years. It also disqualifies anyone with a conviction for DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, driving with an alcohol concentration of .04 or more, using a motor vehicle in the commission of a felony or refusing a blood alcohol test, according to its transportation handbook.

Collier has a dozen drivers with more than four crashes since 2010, while Lee has only six. The Lee driver with the most crashes, Melissa Allen -- she's been involved in seven -- has been removed from behind the wheel and now serves as a bus attendant. Morgan said there are seven others who no longer get behind the wheel for the district.

"I'm proud that she's an attendant," Morgan said of Allen.

Of the current bus drivers with three or more crashes, about two thirds have had at least one traffic ticket or citation over the years, according to a review of Collier and Lee county court records. Many were not moving infractions -- not wearing a seat belt, no proof of insurance -- but a handful have received more serious citations of running red lights and careless driving.

Related article: Attracting, retaining good school bus drivers difficult locally and nationally

Driving a bus is a difficult job. While Morgan said he is confident his drivers are well trained and their equipment is safe, he said, he worries every day.

"I hope I make it through this, my whole career, without having a child get killed on the bus," Morgan said. "That's our fear."

Lee County drivers get 60 hours of classroom training, at least eight hours behind the wheel and take several tests before they're allowed to drive for the district. Collier drivers are required to complete 40 hours of preservice training, including at least 20 hours of classroom instruction and eight hours of behind-the-wheel training.

Drivers in both counties are trained and tested by state-certified trainers and testers.

By comparison, the Suncoast Trucking Academy in Charlotte County charges $750 for a one-day Class B training course.

"For a parent to ... have their child go to a bus stop and get on that bus is the safest way to get them to and from school," Morgan insists.

The federal government agrees. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that only 1 percent of student fatalities during normal school travel hours occur when traveling by school bus, compared to 23 percent when traveling by adult driver and 58 percent when traveling by teen driver.

Transportation officials say the primary reason for the recent increase in crashes is simple: there are more vehicles sharing the roads with buses as the economy improves, construction booms and more people make Southwest Florida a refuge from cold and snowy winters up north.

In the first three months of the year, the number of visitors to Collier County rose 4.8 percent over the year, according to a report released in April and shared with the county's Tourist Development Council. Lee County has noted a similar increase in visitors.

"We've had an increase of approximately 1,500 students this year from last year and you had a terrible winter up North," Morgan said, "so we had a lot more tourists here this year, a lot more traffic."

In many cases, school buses drivers are not at fault in the crashes they're involved in.

In late August, a Lee bus driver and eight students were hospitalized after Robert H. Frost, 68, crashed into it with a sport utility vehicle in North Fort Myers. Frost was killed.

No matter how selective their hiring processes are or how much training they provide to their drivers, there is little school districts can do to prevent other drivers from hitting their buses. The school districts prohibit their drivers from using cellphones on the bus, but they can't stop other drivers from chatting, texting and running into them.

About a quarter of the crashes involving Collier and Lee school buses since the 2010-11 school year involve other drivers hitting buses. Those crashes are occurring more frequently.

"I don't know what the heck we can do about it," Morgan said. "Sixty-four feet of reflective tape, paint them school bus yellow, put a strobe light on top, all those big lights and they run into them anyhow."

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Collier County's fleet of 342 buses transports more than 20,000 kids to and from school every day, driving 252 routes. That adds up to about 5 million miles driven every year.

Lee has more than 800 buses that drive about 77,000 miles per day -- totaling about 14 million miles in 2013-14. That's down from just over 15 million miles in 2012-13, but up from just over 13 million in 2010-11.

Lee has 1,506 bus routes this year, up from 1,396 in 2010-11.

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The Daily News reviewed five years of data as part of its analysis of school bus crashes, choosing to look at school years (August through May, excluding the summer months).

The data provided by the Collier and Lee school districts included many events that are not technically crashes; buses getting stuck in the sand and mud; drivers pulling away from gas pumps with the hoses still in their vehicle; birds, deer and road debris hitting the buses and traffic citations for offenses that did not include a crash. The Daily News did its best to weed those out from the analysis entirely.

The data sets received by the two districts also differed in several ways. The Lee data did not classify fault in the crashes and did not include information about the number of students on the buses when they crashed. The Daily News used descriptions of the crashes for classification purposes.

The Collier data did not have a field specifically noting if drivers received a citation after their crashes.

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