Wayne Central School District superintendent reacts to deadly bus crash

WAYNE COUNTY, N.Y. — Police have identified the man killed in a car crash involving a Wayne Central bus.

William Fierstein, 73, died yesterday, along with his dog.

The Wayne Central School bus was returning to school from a field trip with 22 juniors and seniors and three adults. None of them were hurt.

As you can imagine, this was pretty traumatic for bus driver Deb Hibbard. She said she’s not up for speaking about this just yet. Meanwhile, she’s being praised for her actions Wednesday.

The Wayne Central bus was coming back from a fieldtrip to Rocventures. They were traveling east on Lake Road and the car was traveling north on Route 250.

That’s when they crossed paths and crashed.

Webster Fire Chief Andrew Vorndran said the impact of the vehicles created a fuel leak, which caused the fire. He says that only the bus caught fire, but they were able to put it out in four minutes.

But police still don’t know whether the driver of the car died because of the crash or had a medical emergency.

Wayne Central Schools Superintendent Dr. Joe Siracuse said the students on the bus told him that smoke was coming into the bus as they were all getting off.

“Deb did a great job, along with both the chaperons and several kids of as soon as the car accident occurred. As soon as the bus and car accident occurred, they immediately engaged evacuation, the evacuation process and came off the back of the bus,” Siracuse said. “The first kid at the back of the bus opened the door, helped other kids out. The adults made sure everybody was moving and getting out. Nobody was grabbing book bags or phones or anything like that. They just knew exactly what to do. They had to evacuate and evacuate immediately. And that’s thanks to our training and even our kids who are in that situation. We’re thankful for that training.”

The superintendent says the district trains its bus drivers every year on evacuation drills and what to do in different emergencies.