By Cindy Krantz – The Cincinnati Enquirer
BOND HILL – A parked Metro bus rolled down a sloped driveway Monday, killing an ambulance driver who was transporting a special-needs student to Woodward Career Technical High School.
Sherry A. Pettit, 40, of Harrison was opening the rear ambulance doors to remove the student passenger when she was struck, Cincinnati police said. Pettit, an employee of First Care Ambulance, died at University Hospital Medical Center.
Three others were injured in the crash:
• Akin’o Lamar Blair, 15, of Mount Auburn, a pedestrian on the sidewalk, was also struck by the bus. He was transported to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where he was treated. He is believed to be a Woodward student, but that could not be confirmed Monday night.
• April Travis, 37, of Mount Washington, another employee of First Care, was in the rear of the ambulance attending to the student passenger when she was injured. She was transported to University Hospital, where she was treated.
• Alexis Pickens, 19, of Westwood, the student passenger in the ambulance, was transported to Children’s, where she was treated.
Bus driver Bridgette L. Robinson, 45, of Avondale, was not injured.
The Cincinnati Police Department’s Traffic Unit is investigating the fatal crash outside the Bond Hill high school. No charges have been filed.
The crash occurred shortly before 8:45 a.m. in a semicircle driveway outside the main entrance for students, as Pettit and Travis prepared to remove Pickens from the ambulance.
“They actually had not gotten the student off of the ambulance yet, so the student was still safely in the ambulance,” said Danita Kilgore, Cincinnati police spokeswoman.
Sallie Hilvers, spokeswoman for Metro, said the bus driver parked her vehicle, carrying about 20 Woodward students, about halfway down a sloping driveway.
“She heard or saw something that led her to believe a student might be smoking at the back of the bus,” Hilvers said. “She believes she set her parking brake. She walked to the back of the bus as the kids were getting off.”
The back door, Hilvers explained, has what’s called an interlock feature.
“If the bus has that open door in the back, it will not move. It’s like a safety feature in case somebody’s trying to de-board and the bus starts to move. While the kids are de-boarding, not a problem. The last child de-boards, the doors close, the bus starts to roll. The driver’s on her way back to her seat at that point.”
The bus “rolled slowly” about 30 feet, jumped a curb and came to a stop, Hilvers said.
“The difficulty here is it’s on a slope. … If we were on a flat surface, it probably wouldn’t have rolled,” Hilvers said. “Our prayers are certainly with the people who are injured and with their families.”
Hilvers would not comment on whether the driver’s actions violated Metro policy.
“We have no way to know what occurred until the investigation is complete,” she said.
Robinson has driven for the company seven years, said Jill Dunne, public affairs manager for Metro.
In those seven years, she was cited twice for failure to maintain control, once in her first year on the job when her bus hit a parked vehicle, and once in her second year when her bus was in a crash with another vehicle, according to Hamilton County Court records. No one was injured in either crash.
Robinson is on administrative leave while Metro and Cincinnati police investigate Monday’s accident, Dunne said.
“We’ve got to examine exactly how this happened and take a look at and see if anything could have been done differently or if there’s anything that still needs to be done differently,” Kilgore said.
Janet Walsh, spokeswoman for Cincinnati Public Schools, said, “Certainly, we’ll be taking a close look at the results of the investigation, but right now, based on the sketchy information that we have, it’s a little premature to determine what, if anything, we can do to heighten the safety of the area.”
It’s a daily routine for some special-needs students to arrive at the 1,000-student school by ambulance. Three students, who are part of a unit of medically fragile students at Woodward, are transported to the school by ambulance, Walsh said.
“Classes did go on as usual, but mid-morning, the principal announced there had been this tragic accident and that one of the ambulance workers was killed. At that time, students were told counselors would be made available to anyone who was experiencing emotional difficulties coping with the sudden loss,” Walsh said.
“I think there are many in the Woodward Career Technical High School community that are sending their thoughts and prayers to the family of the worker who died. It’s very sad.”
The Cincinnati School Board held a moment of silence at its 7 p.m. meeting for Pettit.
Staff writers Jennifer Baker and Jessica Brown contributed to this story.
