Taxi collides with school bus; slick roads delay students' arrival
Slick conditions led to slow-moving traffic on Jackson Road on the west side of Ann Arbor Thursday morning.
John Counts | AnnArbor.com
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Slick roads and crashes throughout Washtenaw County Thursday morning delayed students' arrival to school.
A bus carrying special needs students to Eberwhite Elementary School was involved in a minor collision with a Blue Cab taxi on the west side of Ann Arbor.
The collision was described as a "fender bender" and took place in the Adrienne Drive subdivision near the corner of West Liberty Street and South Maple Road.
There were no injuries. Ann Arbor Public Schools and Blue Cab representatives said the cab slid into the school bus at approximately 5 mph and minimal damage occurred to the car.
District Communications Director Liz Margolis said the students all have been delivered to school and parents of students on the bus are being contacted, according to the district's normal practice.
Washtenaw Intermediate School District transportation officials said a number of buses got stuck behind cars that couldn't make it up various hills Thursday morning on their routes, but there were no major incidents involving buses.
Newport Road near Forsythe Middle School was blocked by traffic this morning that delayed buses, Margolis said.
"The roads, especially on the west side of the city, did get icy with no salt down on them," she said.
Most middle school students arrived on time, except for those living in the Forsythe area. There were delays on the west-side roads for both buses and parents driving students to school; and a few elementary buses were delayed up to an hour, Margolis said.
"The east side of the city was in a bit better shape," she said. "Eisenhower was slower but not as icy as the west-side roads."
The squall blew in after the high school service had started, Margolis said, which was too late for district officials to close school.
Ann Arbor Public Schools staff and transportation officials were out assessing the roadway conditions this morning.
"It was slow and icy but we already had students at school and waiting for the bus so there was not a decision to close," Margolis said.
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.
Comments
jns131
Sat, Feb 2, 2013 : 12:45 a.m.
I have noticed these white out conditions are really testing the patience of the bus drivers. These things start after they get on the road. Why can't they start before hand? It was dicey out there at best. Sigh. 2 more months of this stuff and I hear it can only get worse. Is it April yet?
rutrow
Fri, Feb 1, 2013 : 1:07 p.m.
To make matter far worse, all the signals turn red on approach for most vehicles. So what you have is a lot of cars trying to stop suddenly on icy and snowy roads because the signals are either malfunctioning or just maliciously set up for maximum (and I mean maximum) stopping. Even at 3 am signals turn red on approach and you're supposed to come slamming to a stop, though there's no one there at all who has the right-of-way.
Carson
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 9:10 p.m.
Newport Road was blocked by a traffic accident. A southbound truck slammed head-first into a tree just north of the Miller intersection. There also may have been the northbound "can't get up the icy hill" routine; it was hard to tell from the traffic jam on Miller Ave. Either way, it appeared to me that school buses were making the turn onto Pomona instead.
A2comments
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 8:24 p.m.
I think we can all understand that the roads don't get pre-treated enough. And that if they got pre-treated more the bill would be higher. The bigger issue is that most drivers are incompetent when it comes to driving in snow.
Johnson48racing
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 9:16 p.m.
They can't drive in summer, what makes you think these people can drive in winter?
michutefan
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 6:31 p.m.
I think Ann Arbor bought into Al Gore's promise that we wouldn't have any more winter weather and got rid of their snowplows and salt trucks. Meanwhile Al Gore made 1/2 billion dollars on selling his global warming TV station to Islamic Al-Jazeera, while we still have winter in Michigan.
Ypsi Russell
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 10 p.m.
Mr Gore needs to can the rhubarb.
JRW
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 6:22 p.m.
No salt = unnecessary accidents. Everyone should start sending their repair bills for these collisions and the increase in ins premiums as a result to the city to pay for lack of salting and pre-treating. There was plenty of advance warning for this storm, yet A2 doesn't pre-treat road, nor does it get out early and start salting. They lurch from storm to storm, like the bunch of amateurs they are. "Oh, it's snowing and icy. I guess we better think about a salt truck." Oh, that's right, the city skimmed funds from road maintenance to pay for ugly public art. That sculpture ought to take care of salting and plowing for at least 2 months.
eom
Fri, Feb 1, 2013 : 3:32 a.m.
jcj...I agree, people are crazy drivers (the "I have an SUV and can drive 85 in any weather!" crowd) - but I'm not. While driving on a number of roads this morning I went backwards. Thankfully, I was on a side street both times and driving slowly. The city didn't take care of our roads - and that is unnecessary.
jcj
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 11:15 p.m.
driving too fast = unnecessary accidents.
Barb
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 4:32 p.m.
The shape of the roads at 8am this morning was inexcusable - there were large areas of majors streets (Packard, S. 7th, Stadium) that were not salted by the time I was on the road getting my middle schooler to school. Why on earth weren't roads salted earlier?
Buckeye in A2
Mon, Feb 4, 2013 : 8:12 p.m.
I saw the salt trucks out last night at 9p when nothing was going on weather wise. I figured they were pre-treating the roads in preparation for today's snow.
a2mom
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 6:40 p.m.
Newport was really bad too.
JRW
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 6:19 p.m.
The salt trucks should have been out pre-treating the roads, as they do in other cities and counties. No salt at 8 am is just inexcusable. A2 waits until there all kinds of snow on the ground before considering whether to treat roads. The advance warning that storms have means nothing to the city of A2.
Basic Bob
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 5:23 p.m.
At 6am the roads were still dry and clear. Mother Nature doesn't keep a schedule.
JBK
Thu, Jan 31, 2013 : 5:19 p.m.
RTW can't come soon enough!:)