Lamar County School District honors bus drivers after roadside collision response
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Summary
The Lamar County School District recognized four transportation staff after a vehicle failed to stop for a stopped school bus on Baxter Mill Road; staff held students on the bus, stabilized the scene, and handed students to a relief bus within minutes, officials said.
The Lamar County School District on Monday recognized several bus drivers and monitors for their response after a vehicle approached a stopped school bus on Baxter Mill Road.
Mister Smith, the district’s director of transportation, described how driver Denise Benson held two students on the bus when a car was unable to stop and was closing at high speed. “She let her foot off the brake to mitigate the impact,” Smith said, an action he credited with protecting students both on the bus and in the vehicle. Benson was identified in the meeting as a bus driver who also teaches at Fergus High School.
District officials said two additional buses and personnel — driver Blair Murphy, monitor Terry Nelson, and relief driver Pavlal Hall — stopped and provided immediate assistance, calmed younger students and arranged transportation so students could be taken home within about five minutes. “That’s how fast our drivers responded,” one speaker said, adding that the drivers “are the hardest working, best drivers we got.”
The board publicly thanked the transportation staff and noted that sheriff’s deputies had not yet arrived when district employees were already ensuring students and other motorists were safe. No formal disciplinary or injury details were given in the discussion.
The recognition was presented as part of routine board business; officials said they will follow up with formal recognitions for the named employees.