School bus driver, 30, dies in Hudson Ave. crash

The school bus driver who died when his vehicle crashed into a tree Tuesday morning on Hudson Avenue was remembered as an outstanding, well-liked employee who went above and beyond in his four years with the company.

Edwin Rivera Dejesus, 30, was killed and nine passengers — eight children and one adult bus monitor — were taken to Strong Memorial Hospital after the accident at approximately 7 a.m.

"We lost a family member at Monroe School Transportation," general manager David Bonacchi said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

"This company is affected tremendously by what happened today," he said. "It will take a very long time to heal from this loss. We are all better for having known Edwin."

By 4 p.m., six of the children had been released from the emergency department at Strong. Two others and the female bus monitor, who is in her 40s, were later admitted and were in satisfactory condition, according to hospital officials. None of the injuries to any passenger were considered life-threatening. Dr. Michael Kamali, chair of Emergency Medicine at UR Medicine's Strong Memorial Hospital, said the injuries were broken bones. Privacy rules prevented him from giving details about the extent of injuries or the names of those hurt.

The crash still is under investigation. Bonacchi said police indicated to him that Dejesus may have had a massive heart attack. Bonacchi said Dejesus had "a clean bill of health. There were no issues that we knew about."

Dejesus started with Monroe School Transportation as a bus monitor in October 2010 but in a short time had taken the tests to become a driver, Bonacchi said.

"He was a very safe driver," Bonacchi said. "He loved his job."

Bonacchi said Dejesus was more than halfway through his route, driving a mini school bus to School 9 at 485 North Clinton Ave. Bonacchi said Dejesus usually transports about 15 students. The children on the bus ranged in age from 8 to 11 years old.

According to Rochester police, Dejesus was driving south on Hudson Avenue when his bus sideswiped a full-size First Student Transportation bus traveling north. Dejesus' bus then struck a tree near Avenue D.

Dejesus was pinned in the vehicle.

The First Student bus was on its way to School 20 at 54 Oakman St., and had three students on board, city school district spokesperson Laurie Buckley said. Parents were notified and the students were taken to school. There were no apparent injuries, Buckley said.

Parents of School 9 students were called immediately, said another school district spokesman, Chip Partner. Later Tuesday morning, an automated call went out to all School 9 parents, notifying them of what had happened.

Bonacchi said there had not been a similar accident at Monroe School Transportation in his six-year tenure.

Dejesus was unmarried and lived with his parents, Bonacchi said. He said Dejesus' sister worked part time as a driver with the company and was out on her route when the call came in.

All the passengers were transported to Strong, which enacted its disaster response in anticipation of a worst-case scenario, Kamali said.

"Prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Kamali said. "In this case, the best certainly would be to not have had a bus accident this morning. Having had that, again, the patients we received doing well is very encouraging and we're very pleased about that. Certainly, things could have been a lot worse. That's why we made the preparations."

Kamali said Strong prepared for a mass casualty event, in which the hospital would receive a number of patients with potentially life-threatening injuries.

The accident occurred around a shift change at the hospital, and Kamali said emergency department staff who'd worked overnight stayed on duty, which doubled the staff. The disaster plan also put additional medical staff, as well as patient transport and other services at the ready.

"Having eight patients with potentially significant injuries at once, for us today qualified as (a disaster)," Kamali said. "Especially since those were pediatric patients, we wanted to ensure we were as ready as possible and had the full resources of the institution available."

The plan was more for what-if than what eventually transpired.

"That's why we made the preparations and that's why we enacted the disaster response within the hospital to make sure we were ready for anything. We thankful we didn't need more resources. The resources were available, but we're very happy we didn't need all of them."

In addition to any physical injuries sustained by the children, there is the prospect of emotional upset, he said.

"Having to take an ambulance ride to the hospital when anticipating going to school is certainly traumatic. It's stressful."

He said hospital social workers calmed the children, and parents were brought in as soon as possible. "Just trying to get the parents to the bedside with their children helps tremendously."

He said that there are concerns for the children, and that the hospital would be meeting with the City School District to determine any counseling needs.

"There are concerns for our staff as well," he said, adding that anxiety increases when children are involved in accidents. "We'll be working internally, having debriefings with our staff, making sure folks are doing OK. It's very stressful for everybody. Everyone in the community, everyone in the hospital when we hear of a school bus crash. People rally up. But it's then when the adrenaline has gone down that we need to take a breath and make sure everyone is OK."

PSINGER@DemocratandChronicle.com

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TYEE@DemocratandChronicle.com

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Includes reporting by staff writers Tina MacIntyre-Yee, Neeti Upadhye and Justin Murphy.







