A Shelby mother says her 8-year-old daughter was involved in two separate school bus crashes within two weeks, and now she's done letting her ride. Ashley Pressley says the back-to-back incidents left her daughter vomiting, complaining of headaches, and ultimately diagnosed with a concussion in one of the crashes.
Pressley told WBTV that the first crash happened on Sept. 30 on Sulphur Springs Road, and the second followed two weeks later, on Oct. 14. According to Pressley, fault in both crashes remains unclear, and she says Cleveland County Schools did not contact her about the first incident. For the second, she says the district sent her a notification hours after school had already let out for the day.
Mother Says Communication Has Been Lacking
Pressley says she's still waiting on answers from Cleveland County Schools regarding how the district communicates with parents after a crash, who is held accountable, and how closely bus drivers are screened before getting behind the wheel. She says she wants more stringent screening of bus drivers going forward, and that she's decided to pull her daughter off the bus entirely.
“I have to do what makes my daughter safe,” Pressley said, according to WBTV's report. She added that she worries a third crash could happen if nothing changes.
The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office confirmed it responded to the crash, and the North Carolina Highway Patrol investigated. Neither agency has publicly assigned fault for either incident, per the WBTV report.
School District Points to Its Safety Standards
Cleveland County Schools said in a statement that it maintains high standards for bus and student safety and values good communication with parents and families. The district said it communicates safety concerns to parents as soon as it has accurate information to share.
On its transportation page, the district says its bus routes follow North Carolina Administrative Codes, including rules that students must live at least a half-mile from school to qualify for busing, that buses must operate on state-maintained roads, and that passenger stops must be spaced at least two-tenths of a mile apart when safety allows.
A Bus Crash Elsewhere in the Region
A Rutherford County school bus crash occurred in 2025. A Rutherford County school bus collided with a white Ford F-150 pickup truck on Aug. 12 at the intersection of New House Road and Gene Davis Road in Ellenboro, according to WLOS. That bus carried four passengers, including the driver, and none of them were hurt, while the truck's driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to Cleveland Regional Medical Center in Shelby.
A North Carolina State Highway Patrol incident report in that case found the bus driver failed to yield the right of way while turning left onto New House Road, and charges were pending as the crash remained under investigation, the station's report noted.
Statewide Numbers Give Some Context
Statistics cited in the WBTV report attribute to the North Carolina Department of Transportation a count of 745 school bus crashes statewide from Jan. 1 through Oct. 15, including two fatal crashes during that span. For all of 2025, NCDOT reportedly recorded 1,106 school bus crashes statewide, including six fatal crashes, per the same report.
For now, Pressley says she's moving forward with her decision to keep her daughter off the bus while she continues pressing Cleveland County Schools for answers on what happened and what the district plans to change.
