DATE: October 26, 2018
CONTACT:
Janelle Love
Media Relations Office
301-609-6538 or 240-419-0646
TRAFFIC OPERATIONS UNIT INVESTIGATING SCHOOL BUS ACCIDENT: On October 26 at 9:12 a.m., officers responded to Poplar Hill Road at Mattawoman Beantown Road in Waldorf for the report of an accident involving a school bus and a dump truck. Upon arrival, officers located the bus which had 17 students on board as well as the bus driver. All occupants of the bus were transported to a hospital for evaluation and some with minor injuries. Charles County Public Schools Officials were on the scene assisting students. The operator of the dump truck was uninjured.
Initial investigation revealed that a State Highway Administration (SHA) truck with a trailer attached had stopped in the right lane of Southbound Mattawoman Beantown Road to off-load equipment. An occupied Charles County Public Schools bus was travelling south on Mattawoman Beantown Road when it came around a curve and saw the stopped truck and trailer. The bus driver was unable to change lanes due to heavy traffic and stopped behind the SHA truck. A fully-loaded dump truck was behind the school bus, and when the driver saw the stopped vehicles he also attempted to stop. The driver of the dump truck made an effort to change lanes unsuccessfully, striking the left rear corner of the bus with the front right of the dump truck. The Traffic Operations Unit is investigating.
Charles County Crime Solvers offers rewards of up to $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest or indictment of a person responsible for a crime in Charles County. All individuals who provide tips through Crime Solvers will remain anonymous. Anyone with information about an unsolved crime or the location of a fugitive may contact Charles County Crime Solvers by calling 1-866-411-TIPS. Tips can also be submitted online at www.charlescountycrimesolvers.com or by using the P3Intel mobile app, which can be found in the Android Store and Apple store by searching P3tips. For more information about the P3 program, click on this link: www.p3intel.com.
The Charles County Sheriff’s Office is a full-service law enforcement agency comprised of more than 600 police, corrections and civilian personnel responsible for protecting more than 150,000 residents. The CCSO was accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in 2001 has been designated as a CALEA Gold Standard of Excellence agency since 2011. Established in 1658, the CCSO is one of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the United States. For more information, visit www.ccso.us.
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