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Train clips school bus

No one was hurt; the bus, slightly damaged. The driver was charged for not pulling up far enough.

By AMBER MOBLEY and ABBIE VANSICKLE Times Staff Writers
Published January 30, 2007

The school bus driver talks to a Florida Highway Patrol Officer Monday afternoon. The Hillsborough County school bus was struck by CSX train at the intersection of Chapman Road and N. Nebraska Avenue.
	[Times photo: Mike Pease]

TAMPA - A CSX freight train nicked the tail end of a Hillsborough County school bus carrying about 15 magnet school students late Monday afternoon, but no one was hurt.

School bus driver James Hein, 67, described the collision as a "bump." The bus' back right corner was slightly damaged in the collision at N Nebraska Avenue and E Chapman Road in Lutz.

Hein was headed west on Chapman when he stopped for a stop sign just past some railroad tracks.

He didn't pull up close enough to the stop sign, though, leaving part of the bus' bumper hanging over the tracks, said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins.

The passing train clipped the back end of the bus, he said.

Troopers charged Hein with violation to a locomotive, a Florida statute that says that if a driver is driving through a train crossing that doesn't have crossing arms, that driver will do so safely, Coggins said.

Hein has a clean driving record and has worked with the school district since 2002, said schools spokesman Steve Hegarty. The district will investigate the collision, and Hein "won't be driving until we've concluded, and then we'll decide if he drives after that," Hegarty said.

The intersection of Nebraska and Chapman is near the Merrill Gardens retirement village and River of Life Church.

The scene caught the attention of Gae Lyn Switzer, who has lived off Chapman Road for 15 years.

Switzer worries about traffic safety along the road.

"This street is heavily traveled, and with the church and the nursing home, there's an accident here every month," she said.

Officials took about an hour to process the scene. One student used the time creatively. "I just wrote a poem about this," she yelled while transferring to another school bus.

Photographer Mike Pease and researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Amber Mobley can be reached at amobley@sptimes.com or 813 269-5311.

[Last modified January 30, 2007, 06:15:12]