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Dozens of Clark County School District buses already involved in crashes

Posted at 5:04 PM, Sep 11, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-11 21:56:39-04

School started less than a month ago and already, dozens of Clark County school buses have been involved in crashes.

More than 130,000 students ride in school buses every day, according to the Clark County School District. 

Our Contact 13 investigation from earlier this year, using data from CCSD, revealed school buses are involved in hundreds of crashes every year in Clark County. 

The district tells us they've had 40 incidents involving school buses since Aug. 14, 2017. Though some were as minor as hitting a tree branch, that's an average of two per day since this school year began.

On Monday morning, two buses bumped into each other near Cheyenne Avenue and Commerce Street in North Las Vegas. 

Last week, two crashes on the same day -- one involved two other vehicles near Russell Road and Rainbow. Boulevard. No children were on board but two people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The second crash happened a few minutes later near Jones Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. Five students were on board. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

District data obtained by Contact 13 shows there were nearly 495 school bus crashes in the 2015-16 school year. More than half were considered the bus driver's fault. The year before, the district reported 464 total accidents. 

To put that into perspective, nationwide, school buses make up the largest ground transportation system in the country. CCSD operates more than 1,700 buses covering 23 million miles every year.