A crash last month involving the transportation of Kansas state prison inmates to a work release program in Iola was due to drowsy driving, inmates told police.
State officials instead blame winter weather conditions and credit the bus driver for averting further damage.
The incident, which didn’t result in any serious injuries, occurred Feb. 19 while a private bus company was taking inmates from Topeka Correctional Facility to a Russell Stover plant in Iola, where a year-old partnership has allowed prisoners to work.
That program has garnered some pushback from prison reform activists, though inmate safety was never considered one of the chief objections. A portion of the salary paid to inmates is redirected to pay for transportation, among other costs.
Started last April, the workforce development program is one of the first of its kind at Topeka Correctional Facility and involves the busing of pre-selected inmates to Russell Stover plants in both Iola and Abilene.
On Feb. 19, the bus was traveling southbound along US-169 highway when it veered off the road and into a ditch after the driver, Donald Bell, appeared to overcorrect for swerving onto the shoulder, according to an accident report filed by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department and obtained by the Capital-Journal.
“One DOC inmate approached me after Bell walked away and advised me that the driver appeared to have been falling asleep and that they did not feel comfortable with him driving to their final destination,” Sheriff Deputy Kaelin Eslinger wrote in the report. “Statements were collected from two inmates that state the driver appeared to be falling asleep resulting in the bus going off the road to the right.
“The driver then overcorrected the steering to the left resulting in leaving the roadway to the east of the highway.”
Bell isn’t a Kansas Department of Corrections employee, but rather works for Thompson Coach, a Missouri-based firm apparently hired by Russell Stover to transport the inmates to Iola. A representative from the company didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Inmates told the Capital-Journal that Bell isn’t the normal driver tasked with the trip to Iola, but has been used semi-regularly since the accident.
Corrections’ response doesn’t match report
Carol Pitts, a spokesperson for KDOC, said the bus sliding off the road “was attributed to road and wind conditions.”
“Authorities commented that both damage to the bus and injuries were likely avoided because of the driver’s experience and skill in handing the vehicle,” Pitts said in an email.
In his report, Eslinger noted there were no adverse weather conditions and said the surface of the road was dry.
There is no evidence Bell was intoxicated at the time of the crash, the report said.
