Wichita school bus driver failed to yield before crash near Bel Aire elementary, KHP says

State law enforcement officials said the driver of a Wichita school bus was at fault in a crash near a Bel Aire elementary school Tuesday afternoon.

A school bus with no students on board was involved in a wreck reported at 2:27 p.m. at 53rd North and Woodlawn, just outside Isely Traditional Magnet Elementary School, a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said.

Bel Aire police said in a Facebook post that the crash was “a result of inattentive driving and current road conditions.” Photos showed a First Student school bus in the ditch.

The bus was stopped on westbound 53rd Street when the driver failed to yield to a pickup that was southbound on Woodlawn, a Kansas Highway Patrol crash report states. The 77-year-old man driving the Chevy school bus had no apparent injury. A 63-year-old woman on the bus was taken to a hospital.

The 37-year-old man driving the 2008 Ford F-250 was not injured when the pickup crashed into the bus, according to the crash report.

Susan Arensman, a spokesperson for Wichita Public Schools, confirmed that the First Student bus did not have any students on board. She said a bus monitor reportedly had minor injuries. The crash was not expected to affect students’ rides home from school.

This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 3:14 PM.