Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz is replacing buses that are more than 30 years old, but officials say the move is unrelated to a fatal accident involving one of them. Last week, the university said the cause of the crash that led to driver Dan Stevenson’s death was due to his failure to negotiate a left turn in the road and had nothing to do with mechanical failure or deficiencies with the vehicle.
UC Santa Cruz will replace buses that are more than 30 years old, improve its transportation maintenance program and provide safety training for its staff, but officials say the plan to replace buses predated a fatal crash involving one of them.
School officials on Tuesday said the cause of the fatal crash that led to driver Dan Stevenson’s death was due to driver error. UCSC spokesperson Marc DesJardins shared more details about the investigation into the crash with Lookout last week, ahead of the university releasing a final incident report to the public late Friday.
Officials said Stevenson failed to make a “sweeping left-hand curve,” and there was no evidence that the bus malfunctioned. “For an unknown reason, the bus veered off the right roadway edge where it collided with signposts, fencing, and the rock wall of a lime kiln, where it came to a stop,” UC Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Domby wrote in a statement.
On Dec. 12 at about 8:30 p.m., the campus bus drove off the road near the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn, adjacent to the main entrance of campus at the Coolidge Drive-High Street intersection, and crashed into a lime kiln. Stevenson died in hospital on Dec. 29 from injuries sustained in the crash, and five student-passengers were injured. Officials told Lookout they didn’t know if the passengers had all fully recovered.
A California Highway Patrol accident investigation team assisted in the university’s investigation of the crash and “found no signs that the bus had damages that could have contributed to the cause.”
In February, CHP released a report of an inspection of the university’s fleet done after the crash, and took five buses out of service for repairs and classified the campus transit operation an “imminent danger to public safety.”
In May, the state agency reinspected the shuttles and gave the university a “satisfactory rating.” It took two buses out of service because their brakes were out of alignment.
UCSC is working to improve its maintenance program and the safety training for its staff. The university said it is also doing more internal reviews and more frequent inspections.
Lookout requested the report of a third-party expert’s “comprehensive review of our maintenance program” but didn’t receive a response about its availability by publication time.
Last week, Lookout also asked Domby and UCSC spokespeople additional questions about the condition of the 1993 bus, Stevenson’s health and if police had any concerns about the roadway’s potential hazards.
UCSC officials said “there was no evidence of any medical condition that caused or contributed to the crash,” including that there was no evidence of drug or alcohol use or the possibility that Stevenson might have fallen asleep. Officials said their investigation found he slept the night before, took his regularly scheduled breaks that day and talked to the passengers as they boarded the bus on the last loop he drove.
“Absent any direct evidence like a witness or driver statement, it wouldn’t be possible to determine if someone fell asleep,” they wrote via email.
UCSC officials also said: “There are no noted defects in the roadway at that location and no history of crashes there” and “there was no indication that roadway was a factor.”
They added that all the passengers on the bus were interviewed during the investigation and none of them had information “relevant to determining the cause” of the crash.
Lookout asked if the age of the buses made driving them more difficult, but officials reiterated that inspections found that all systems of the bus were working and didn’t contribute to the cause of the crash.
UCSC officials said their decision to replace all of their 1993 buses – like the one involved in the crash – was made prior to the incident, saying their work to phase them out “began months prior.”
Part of the reasoning was the increasing difficulty to find replacement parts for the buses.
“It was recommended by UCSC Fleet Services and Campus Transit Management staff that buying additional buses was prudent to best maintain/expand Campus Transit service levels,” they wrote. “After consulting with our AVC of Risk and Safety Services, the decision to begin procuring additional buses as a resilience measure was made by our TAPS Executive Director in the summer of 2023.”
The university plans to have all of the 1993 buses replaced by the end of the 2025 fiscal year. Lookout asked what year the replacement buses were made but didn’t get a response by publication time.
In a statement, the university said the buses are “newer” but did not specify the year. In May, City on a Hill Press, the university’s student newspaper, reported that the university acquired four 2007 buses, making them about 17 years old.
The campus has a total fleet of 30 buses.
Officials say the university is also scheduled to receive two new electric buses in late 2025 or early 2026.
Final accident report released
UCSC released a copy of the police investigation into the crash on Friday, eight months after it happened.
It found that “[Stevenson] caused this collision by failing to navigate the left curve of the road, causing [the bus] to veer off the west side of the roadway” in violation of state law that says, “No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety.”
The “recommendations” section of the report says “None.”
The report details efforts to determine whether there were any mechanical or other issues with the bus, and/or whether Stevenson was impaired by a medical condition or something else. Police say they found no evidence of either.
“The mechanical inspection and testing performed on this vehicle — including throttle operation, power train, tires and wheels, steering, suspension, and the air brake system — did not reveal any evidence of pre-existing mechanical conditions or failures that would have contributed to the cause of this crash,” the report found.
The report says that Stevenson was wearing his seatbelt and was flown to a hospital from the scene before being pronounced dead. The nature of Stevenson’s injuries and exact cause of death, along with the county’s complete medical record review, are blacked out in the report released to the public.
But Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office-Coroner Chief Forensic Pathologist Dr. Stephany Fiore is quoted as determining that “there is no clear evidence of a natural event that would explain the driver’s behavior preceding the accident.”
The time of the crash was pinpointed from surveillance camera footage that captured the bus “turning right on Coolidge Drive from Hagar Drive seconds before the crash and after failing to come to a complete stop at a steady red traffic signal.”
The accident took out about 100 feet of barbed wire fencing and a “No Bicycles” sign along Coolidge Drive before hitting the university’s stone lime kiln building, according to the report.
According to the report, Stevenson started working as a driver for UCSC in August 2021 after working as a driver for Santa Cruz Metro for 22 years. One of his supervisors told police that he had been working a shift that day that started at 2 p.m. and was supposed to go until 10:30 p.m. He took a dinner break from 5:25 to 5:55 p.m. that day and another break from 7:50 to 8:10 p.m. The crash took place at the end of the first 20-minute “loop” that he drove following his second break.
Stevenson completed that same loop more than 1,300 times during his tenure as a UCSC driver, his supervisor told police.
“Ridership was relatively low and traffic light due to final exams being conducted,” the report found, “providing [Stevenson] with plenty of time to complete his assigned loops without any pressure.”
Major portions of the accident report released to the public were blacked out by police, including one witness’s entire statement.
A police officer at the scene reported finding no evidence that Stevenson was using his phone during the crash.
– Matt DeRienzo contributed to this report.
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