Wisconsin native Shane Kreuscher experienced something earlier this week that would make any parent shudder. He heard a massive crash outside his home as his three daughters were walking off the school bus, and when he rushed outside, he saw that a pickup truck had rammed into the back of the bus hard enough to shunt it nearly 30 feet. Thankfully, no one—not even the driver of the barely recognizable pickup—was seriously hurt. All of the kids walked away with just bumps and bruises, as the school bus suffered what’s essentially a flesh wound.
The photos of the aftermath don’t seem real after watching Kreuscher’s doorbell camera footage. In the video, the pickup rams into the bus so hard that the back of the bus crumples the truck’s cabin all the way to the bed. It was absolutely obliterated. As for the damage to the bus, only some of its sheet metal peeled away, while its exposed frame looked untouched. It’s like a beer can got into a fight with a steel I-beam.
Remarkably, the driver of the truck was pinned inside but made it out alright as only the passenger side was destroyed.
Looking at the bus proves its structure worked like it’s supposed to. If you inspect underneath their yellow bodywork, you’ll see an extremely sturdy chassis with frame rails that run all the way to the back. There’s metal skirting on both sides, and in this case, that’s all that appears to be damaged. Obviously, the bus needs the lengthy frame rails to support the three-and-a-half-ton body, but all that steel serves double duty for crash protection.
That overhang behind the rear axle is what saved Kreuscher’s daughters, as well as the other kids. A compact car would never stand a chance against a speeding truck, largely because it lacks the material strength and sheer heft of the steel used to manufacture the bus. With a tank of fuel, they typically weigh more than 20,000 pounds.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, the driver of the pickup said he “didn’t see any lights or sign and the sun was blinding.” Kreuscher told The Drive that all of the bus’ stop signs were deployed and its lights were on at the time of the collision. Sun aside, the truck driver doesn’t even appear to brake or swerve in the video; they just drive straight into the bus. The Waupaca County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating the incident but hasn’t released any official information at the time of publishing.
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