Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz officials say they're still investigating the cause of a Dec. 12 bus crash that led to the death of the driver on campus.
One month after a bus crash that resulted in the death of a driver, UC Santa Cruz officials say they’re still investigating the cause of the collision that also injured five passengers.
UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said Thursday that campus police and the California Highway Patrol are still actively investigating.
“I don’t yet have any information to share about the cause,” he wrote in a statement to Lookout.
The driver, Dan Stevenson, died weeks after the Dec. 12 crash. The union representing Santa Cruz Metro drivers, SMART Local 0023, said he died Dec. 28, but a university statement said he died Dec. 29. The union statement described him as a “genuinely kind-hearted person dedicated to serving his community.”
After 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 12, a UCSC bus drove off the road and hit a lime kiln located near the base of the campus and the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn, in the area of Coolidge Drive near High Street. Last month, UCSC officials said four of the victims sustained minor to moderate injuries while one sustained serious injuries. Three were treated and released from Dominican Hospital, a hospital spokesperson told Lookout previously.
Following the incident, UCSC took the other 35-foot buses off the roads for inspections and asked the California Highway Patrol’s Commercial Motor Carrier Safety Unit to assist. Later, the university announced it was also taking all its 30-foot buses off the roads for inspections by an independent third party.
The CHP unit told Lookout it had no comment and referred questions to UCSC officials.
Hernandez-Jason said that as the buses clear the inspection process the university is returning them to service. He added that all the buses are regularly checked for maintenance and undergo pre-trip inspections.
However, because UCSC is pulling the buses off the roads for service, the school announced to campus early last week that bus passengers will likely face delays.
“Bus riders may experience transit delays until that process concludes in the next week or so,” Hernandez-Jason wrote to Lookout. “We are encouraging instructors to be patient with students who might be late to class because of transportation delays.”
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