Driver threads runaway bus past danger

One injured Central Catholic High student is taken to the hospital, but the rest escape with cuts and bruises after a harrowing ride off U.S. 19.

[Times photo: Jim Damaske] Maritza Gonzalez thanks bus driver George Coltman on Tuesday after he steered his bus off U.S. 19 when the brakes failed. Her 15-year-old daughter, Roxana, was on board the bus and was uninjured. "I thought we were going to hit a tree or roll over, like in the movies, and die," Roxana said. "We were really scared."

By ROBERT FARLEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 8, 2002

PALM HARBOR -- Bus driver George Coltman said he didn't have time to think.

To the high school students sitting behind Coltman, the scene unfolded like something out of a movie. As the bus rolled north on U.S. 19 Tuesday afternoon, the brakes suddenly failed.

"I hit it (the brake pedal), and it went to the floor," Coltman said.

He frantically pumped the brake again. Nothing.

Moving at 35 mph, Coltman, 61, had few options and an instant in which to act. Fearing he would crash into the back of a car stopped for the light at Tampa Road, he steered into the right turn lane. But that lane was blocked with stopped cars too.

In a split-second decision, Coltman turned sharply to the right, into the parking lot for Tire Kingdom.

In the back, the 17 students from Clearwater Central Catholic High School began to sense trouble.

"Use the parking brake!" one student yelled.

There wasn't time.

Working on instinct, Coltman said, he threaded the bus through the narrow opening between the concrete stand for a billboard pole and a large oak tree. The opening was hardly wider the bus itself.

"I don't know how the hell I got through there," said Coltman, who lives in New Port Richey.

The bus careened across a driveway for the back entrance to Burger King and then quickly dove into a 4-foot-deep drainage ditch. The nose of the bus hit and then bounced up.

Screaming, the students were pitched into the air, and then back down again, with many landing on top of each other.

The bus bottomed out in the ditch and came to a stop just a few feet short of a 21/2-foot dropoff back onto Tampa Road.

"If we'd have gone over the wall, God knows what would have happened," Coltman said.

Only one student was hurt badly enough to be taken by ambulance to Mease Countryside Hospital with injuries that were not considered to be life-threatening. Neither his name nor his condition was available Tuesday night. The rest escaped with a few cuts, scrapes and bruises.

Looking at the narrow clearing between the tree and the billboard, Coltman shook his head in disbelief.

"I don't know how we got through and missed that tree," he said, taking a long drag on his cigarette. "I guess it just wasn't our time."

Afterward, students and parents took turns thanking Coltman for his quick thinking.

"This guy saved our lives," said Joe Froio, 15, of New Port Richey. "He did a really good job."

Roxana Gonzalez, 15, of New Port Richey, said everyone feared the worst.

"I thought we were going to hit a tree or roll over, like in the movies, and die," Roxana said. "We were really scared. The bus driver did a really great job."

Roxana said the impact from the gully pitched her into the air. She crashed into several people before landing. But she suffered just a few cuts and bruises.

"He (Coltman) stayed calm through the whole thing," said Joe Brust, 17. "We owe him for this one."

Coltman said it was an automatic reaction.

"It all happened so fast," he said.

Coltman has been driving for three months for Sunshine Transportation of New Port Richey, a private company that transports some Clearwater Central Catholic students as far north as Spring Hill. Coltman said he has been driving buses and vans off and on for about seven years, including a stint delivering misplaced luggage from the airport.

John Michaels Stefanski, owner of Sunshine Transportation, said the company just replaced the 10-year-old bus's master cylinder a month ago.

"It had no problems mechanically up until this point," he said. "It's a very strange deal."

Stefanski said he won't know what went wrong with the bus until he has a chance to check it over.

"I'm just thankful it wasn't any worse than it was," he said.

"Good job," Stefanski said, grabbing Coltman's shoulder.

"So am I fired?" Coltman asked.

"No," Stefanski said. "I just want to find out what happened."

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Hinton said there will be no traffic charges.

"It was mechanical failure," he said.

As the students shuffled off with their parents, or onto a second bus brought in to complete the route, Roxana Gonzalez paused to thank Coltman.

Smiling, she said, "You can drive for us any time."

-- Robert Farley can be reached at (727) 445-4185 or farley@sptimes.com.

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