MONTGOMERY — A school bus crash that killed four Huntsville students and led
to national changes in school bus safety was caused by a passing car that went out of control and forced the bus to plunge from an overpass, a new federal report said Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board report also said bus driver Anthony Scott was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected, leaving the bus without anyone at the wheel to hit the brakes as it slid atop a concrete wall and nose-dived 30 feet to pavement below.

The report, released one day before the third anniversary of the wreck, said some serious injuries might have been mitigated if the bus had provided lap-and-shoulder belts for students.

The four Lee High School students who died were seated near the front of the bus that was crushed on impact.

Calvin Darnell Fletcher, whose daughter Nicole Ford was killed, said he hoped the long-awaited report would have more new information.

“The car hit the bus. It’s the same thing they’ve been saying the whole time,” he said. “(Investigators) can do what they can do but if you weren’t on that bus, you don’t really know what happened. The only ones who’ll ever know for sure are the kids, the bus driver and God.”

Response to report

Montgomery attorney Kendall Dunson represented Fletcher in his daughter’s wrongful death case and said he was disappointed by the 13-page report, given the amount of time it took.

“I read it thinking, ‘Well, OK, they could have put that report out a couple months after the incident.’ ”

NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said the agency regrets the delay and that lower resources — primarily because of a Minnesota bridge collapse investigation — were to blame.

The horrific bus wreck led to a new government rule, announced last year, requiring smaller school buses to be equipped with lap-and-shoulder seat belts for the first time.

It also required seat backs on all new buses to be raised to 24 inches — up from 20 inches — over a three-year period.

The bus driver was taking 40 Lee High School students to a technology center in downtown Huntsville on Nov. 20, 2006, when the bus collided with a Toyota driven by another Lee student, Tony Williams, who was also headed to the tech center.

Investigators said Williams, 17 at the time, lost control around a curve while trying to overtake the bus before their exit on Interstate 565.

His car struck the bus’ front right tire, sending the bus careening into a concrete barrier.

The 6-foot-2, 340-pound Scott was hurled through the bus door on impact with the wall, and the driverless bus slid along the top of the rail for about 117 feet before it rolled and plunged onto a street below, the NTSB report said.

It said the Toyota and bus maintained contact as they swerved to the left and the crash was made worse because the bus couldn’t move away from the wall.

Killed were Christine Collier, 16; Tanesha Estella Hill, 17; Crystal McCrary, 17; and Nicole Ford, 19.

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