The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on Tuesday on its investigation into the fatal Rockland school bus.
The report concludes that three students exited the school bus on Route 1A in Rockland around 2:20 p.m. on Nov. 21. The last student to get off the bus, 12-year-old Brayden Callahan, was crossing in front of the bus in the crosswalk to the other side of Route 1A.
As he was at the front right corner of the bus, the bus moved and ran over him, resulting in fatal injuries, the NTSB report states. There were 19 other students on the bus at the time, according to the preliminary report.
The NTSB report falls in line with the details in a police report on the incident, but the police report also said the driver did not keep his eyes on the road after dropping Brayden off.
The bus driver, Jeffrey Colburn, 65, of Camden, was charged with manslaughter and arrested by Rockland police on Thursday. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in a court appearance on Friday and subsequently made his $2,000 bail.
Colburn is not allowed to operate any commercial vehicle or school buses and is not to have contact with the child’s parents, according to District Attorney Natasha Irving.
Attorney Steve Smith said his firm is representing Brayden Callahan’s parents in a civil action against Colburn and Regional School Unit 13.
Brayden’s mother was told her son “would have faced lifelong disability had he survived,” Smith added.
Brayden was the first of two Maine children to die in a school bus crash just weeks apart late last year. Simon Gonzalez, a 5-year-old kindergartener, was killed in a Dec. 16 crash in Standish that the NTSB is also investigating.
Also on Tuesday, Gov. Janet Mills announced plans to improve school bus safety. She will propose more than $4 million to pay for enhanced safety measures, which could include retrofitting school buses with crossing arms and anti-pinch door sensors.
Mills also established a Maine School Transportation Safety Commission, designed to review school bus safety regulations.
The NTSB typically investigates 10 to 12 school bus crashes per year, according to an agency official. There were an average of 108 school transportation-related fatalities in the United States each year from 2013 to 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
