Today (10/28/25), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent NASDPTS an urgent safety recommendation with respect to the Leander, Texas school bus crash from August 2025. We ask that you read the following information, to include the crash description and the urgent recommendation, carefully.

The NASDPTS Board of Directors will be discussing this urgent recommendation at our November 13 meeting.

Leander, Texas Crash Description

On August 13, 2025, about 3:14 p.m. central daylight time, a 2025 77-passenger Blue Bird school bus, operated by the Leander ISD, was traveling south in the 22000 block of Nameless Road near Leander, Travis County, Texas, when it crossed over the centerline, returned to the travel lane, and then departed the roadway to the right. The bus subsequently rolled onto its right (or loading door) side, continued onto its roof, and then came to rest on its left (or driver’s) side on the slope adjacent to the roadway (see figure 1). During the rollover sequence, the bus struck roadside vegetation, causing additional damage to the roof and intrusion into the right side of the passenger compartment. At the time of the crash, the bus was transporting 46 student passengers between ages 4 and 10 from Bagdad Elementary School to their residences. Sixteen of the passengers and the driver were injured in the crash; no one was fatally injured.

The speed limit for Nameless Road is 45 mph with a curve advisory speed of 35 mph in the area of the bus’s roadway departure. The bus was traveling at a video-recorded speed of 45 mph when it crossed the centerline and 41 mph when it departed the roadway.2 At the time of the crash, the roadway was wet from light rain.

Lap/shoulder belts were available in all seating positions, and five-point harnesses for pre-school passengers’ use were available in some seats. However, only six of the 42 passengers visible in the onboard video footage (out of the 46 passengers onboard) were belted at the time of the crash. When the school bus departed the roadway and began to roll over, the unbelted passengers were thrown from their seating compartments and into the roof area, striking the ceiling of the school bus and other passengers. As the bus rolled further and came to rest, unbelted passengers ended up on the left side of the bus and on top of other passengers, the seats, and the left-side windows. The non-use of the available lap/shoulder belts and five-point harnesses by most passengers resulted in occupant-to-interior and occupant-to-occupant impacts, leading to injuries for many of the unbelted passengers. Of the six belted passengers, four were improperly belted, wearing only the lap portion of the lap/shoulder belt. The improperly belted passengers, using only the lap portion of the lap/shoulder belt, were only partially restrained and subject to injury from upper body flailing and occupant-to-occupant impact.

Additional information can be found here: https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/HWY25MH014.aspx.

Urgent NTSB Recommendation to NASDPTS

Inform your members of the circumstances of the Leander, Texas, rollover crash, the lack of seat belt use by most passengers, and the need for school districts to establish enforceable policies and procedures for seat belt use on school buses so that every student and driver on every school bus equipped with passenger seat belts is properly restrained by lap/shoulder belts or five-point harnesses, as appropriate, on every trip. The policies and procedures should at a minimum include:

mandatory pre-departure driver instruction to students to properly belt and periodic pre-departure inspection by drivers or other staff to ensure that each student is properly belted;

periodic review of onboard video camera footage, when equipped, to verify seat belt use; and

increased training and education of school administrators and staff, bus drivers, parents, and students about proper seat belt use and adjustment, seat belt policies and procedures, the safety benefits of seat belt use, and the importance of being properly belted. (H-25-27) (Urgent).