On February 24, 1983, an empty dump truck, traveling north on State Route 96, a two-lane rural highway near Willow Creek, California, suddenly veered left across the centerline and collided head-on with a southbound schoolbus loaded with 37 occupants. The truckdriver and one schoolbus passenger seated directly behind the schoolbus driver were killed; the schoolbus driver and 30 passengers were injured. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the inattention of the truckdriver to the developing traffic situation ahead and the execution of a braking maneuver that resulted in the truck sliding out of the proper lane of travel. Contributing to the severity of some of the student injuries were the pre-Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 222 schoolbus seats with exposed metal frames.
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