The National Transportation Safety Board has scheduled an open public board meeting for 8:30-a.m. Central Time June 18th in Washington, D.C., to determine the probable cause of the fatal, Dec. 12, 2017, Oakland, Iowa, school bus fire. The crash occurred when 74-year old school bus driver Donald Hendricks turned from a rural gravel road onto a residential driveway for student pickup. After 16-year old Megan Klindt boarded the bus, Hendricks reversed out of the driveway and backed across the road continuing until the bus’s rear wheels ran off the road. The bus came to rest with its rear half in a 3-foot-deep ditch next to the road.

NTSB investigation photos of Oakland School Bus fire

While Hendrick attempted to drive the bus out of the ditch, a fire began in the engine compartment and spread throughout the school bus. Both Hendricks and Klindt died, when they did could not escape the burning bus. The meeting will be lived-streamed, and a public docket for this investigation is available from the NTSB website at https://go.usa.gov/xmVnE

For more information, including the preliminary incident report, go to: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Pages/2019-HWY18MH003-BMG.aspx