The National Transportation Safety Board believes it has determined what caused a fatal bus crash in Rushville two years ago this month.
In a report released March 6, the agency said the probable cause of the crash was the school bus driver’s impairment and fatigue from prescription medications, which caused the bus carrying three young students to cross the center line and collide with a semi tractor trailer.
The bus driver, the truck driver, and the three children were killed in the crash, which happened on March 11, 2024.
According to the NTSB investigation, post-mortem toxicology tests showed the presence of multiple prescription drugs in the bus driver’s system, including central nervous system depressants and an opioid painkiller. She also suffered from chronic fatigue.
The bus driver received a commercial driver’s license with a bus passenger endorsement seven months before the crash.
In Illinois, school bus drivers are required to be medically evaluated every year. While the bus driver had a valid one-year medical certificate at the time of the crash, the NTSB investigation found her most recent physical examination did not accurately reflect her medical history.
The NTSB also investigated distracted driving as a potential cause of the crash. The hard drive storing video on the bus involved in the crash was destroyed, so investigators examined video from a different bus assigned to the driver in the days leading up to the crash. That revealed the driver interacted with her cell phone 38 times in five days while operating the bus, and frequently engaged in other distracting behaviors, according to the NTSB.
The bus driver’s phone was also destroyed in the crash. But the NTSB looked at phone logs and determined there were no calls or texts made at the time of the crash.
Instead, the agency found that use of prescription drugs “likely contributed to the crash.”
The NTSB report notes that, since the crash, the Illinois State Board of Education has updated its bus driver training curriculum and exam to include information about prohibited cell phone use while transporting students.
The ISBE also distributed a memo to all Illinois student transportation providers that included a link to the Illinois statute regarding cell phone use while operating a bus.
In addition, Schuyler-Industry District 5 — and other area school districts — developed transportation handbooks for bus drivers and administrators.
In 2026, the Illinois Secretary of State revised the physical examination and certificate form for school bus drivers in Illinois. It now has questions regarding the disclosure of medication use, sleep disorders, and additional health history details that were not included on prior versions of the form.
