TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) – Following Wednesday’s rollover crash involving a Leander ISD school bus in the Sandy Creek neighborhood, many were quick to share concerns about road safety in the area, reaching out to KXAN via email and on social media.
“The tailgating is my thing,” said Tom Lankford, who drives Nameless Road frequently. “And I know other people complain about people drifting over the yellow line or the double yellow line.”
Forty-two students were on the bus when it rolled over, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and 17 students – along with the driver – went to the hospital. Austin-Travis County EMS said two of the children had serious injuries, but everyone is expected to be okay.
According to Texas Department of Public Transportation data, there have been 110 crashes on Nameless Road, a small street that stems off of 1431 and morphs into 2243. Those crashes involved 178 people and 141 vehicles. The image below shows markings of the crashes. You can view more detailed Nameless Road crash information here.
According to a spokesperson with Travis County, it is a county-maintained road. Major projects to address road improvements would have to be funded as part of a bond package. According to online county transportation records, no such projects have taken place on Nameless Road. Residents who want to include a road as part of this list of projects are instructed to reach out to their county commissioners.
The road is windy and has minimal shoulder space with a roughly six inch drop-off into the brush in many places, as pictured below.
‘Tears were coming out of my eyes,’ Man helps reunite students, parents after crash
“When it comes to children, that’s a different story,” was one of the first things Darwin C. Bell said when he talked about rushing to the Round Mountain Baptist Church, which served as a reunification center for students on the bus and their parents.
The crash happened on Leander ISD’s first day of school.
“Just keep [the parents] calm because they were, as you can understand, I mean if it was my child I’d be all nervous and everything too,” he said. “Really heartbreaking to hear about this bus accident.”
He said things were tense as parents waited while emergency crews got the children to safety.
“Really tensed up and really scared, and I couldn’t blame them one bit,” he said.
But when he saw the uninjured children come back “let me tell you, tears were coming out of my eyes. The kids were going to the parents and were hugging them, and you could tell the kids were still real nervous.”
The cause of the crash is still under investigation.