ROCKLAND – A group of middle and high school students received an unexpected lesson in emergency response systems following a minor accident involving their school bus and a private automobile. At 7 a.m., Friday, Dec. 1, an RSU 13 bus, occupied by 15 students and one driver, collided with a passenger car near the corner of Broadway and Chestnut streets in Rockland.

According to Rockland Deputy Police Chief Chris Young, a 1988 Cadillac driven by William Fearing, 63, of Rockland was driving west on Chestnut Street when he attempted a turn onto Broadway. In doing so, he pulled in front of the schoolbus driven by Kevin Moholland, 29, or Waldoboro.

Broadway was shut down for the 32 minutes at the intersection, forcing other drivers to follow detours.

Not one of the 17 people involved in the collision reported injures when questioned by the seven responding Fire/EMS personnel and two police officers, according to both Young and Asst. Fire Chief Adam Miceli. Students remained in the bus at all times, with members of EMS walking the aisle, taking attendance and talking to the parents on the children’s personal cell phones.

According to Miceli, in a typical accident involving a minor, EMS personnel would have to wait on scene with the child until a parent to arrive. Or, responders would have to take the child to the emergency room regardless of injury. However, because the bus is under the authority of the school department, two members of the school came to the scene and took responsibility for the two children whose parents could not be reached.

Though the accident took place in a relatively slow speed zone, as compared to speeds of major conduits such as Route 17, the Cadillac endured extensive damage and had to be towed away.

Dispatch toned out the EMS department just after 7 a.m., summoning personnel to a “car versus school bus, with a full school bus of kids,” according to Miceli. Then, as two of the ambulances were enroute, a follow-up dispatch call stated that the car had sustained heavy damage.

“We were fortunate that it was shift change.” Miceli said. “Both shifts of people were all still here, so we had double the number of people that we normally have here at the station. We were confident that we had a good response.

All 15 children were then transported to school in the same school bus, which received very minor damage to the bumper.

“All of the students were very cooperative with fire/EMS and school officials, which shortened the overall time spent on scene,” Miceli said in his official report. “As usual Rockland Fire & EMS and Rockland PD work well together to quickly mitigate any incident and integrating school officials into the incident command structure was seamless.”

The accident is still under investigation, according to Young. At this time, however, no charges have been filed.

First Unit/Arrival Time: 0705 hrs Rescues 1 & 3 and Squad 3

Apparatus Assigned: Car 1, Squad 3, Rescues 1 & 3

Number of Personnel: 7 fire/EMS personnel

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com

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