Two West Baton Rouge Parish school buses collided Tuesday in the parking lot of Brusly High School, and 11 of the 54 students riding the buses were taken to a hospital with reported minor injuries. One bus ran into the back of the other, according to a spokesperson for the local sheriff's office.
The collision was confirmed by a West Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office spokesperson cited by WBRZ, which reported that the buses were carrying a combined 54 students at the time of the crash. The same spokesperson said 11 students were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, though no further details on their conditions have been released.
How the Crash Unfolded
Details remain limited on exactly how the collision happened beyond the basic sequence confirmed by authorities: one bus struck the rear of the other while both were in the Brusly High School parking lot. The collision occurred around 8:21 a.m. Tuesday, and no information has been released about the bus drivers, the students involved, which hospital treated them, or the routes the buses were running.
Louisiana’s school-bus safety rules require buses to undergo inspections at least twice a year, as well as pre-trip or post-trip checks by drivers. The state’s Department of Education also provides training and technical assistance to school transportation supervisors and requires school-bus driver instructors to meet certification and training-update requirements. Those rules establish statewide oversight, but do not by themselves indicate whether either bus in Tuesday’s collision had a mechanical problem. Louisiana’s inspection requirements and state transportation-program responsibilities cover those safeguards.
Not the First School Bus Crash in the Parish This Year
Tuesday's collision follows a similar incident in West Baton Rouge Parish just months earlier. On Aug. 18, six students aboard a school bus were taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries after a crash around 6:45 a.m. at LA 415 and Main Street, according to WAFB. The driver of the other vehicle involved in that crash was also hospitalized with minor injuries, the station reported.
The Brusly collision and the Aug. 18 crash occurred months apart in West Baton Rouge Parish.
Nationally, 1,079 people died in school-transportation-related traffic crashes from 2014 through 2023, an average of 108 deaths a year, federal data show. Most of those killed—70%—were occupants of other vehicles; 113 were occupants of school transportation vehicles. The federal category includes crashes directly or indirectly involving a vehicle transporting children to or from school or school-related activities, so the figures provide broad context rather than a direct comparison with the Brusly parking-lot collision. NHTSA’s 2014–2023 school-transportation crash data detail the counts.
