Ohio jury convicts man who caused first day of school bus crash that killed 11-year-old
The man who was behind the wheel of a minivan that caused a Clark County school bus to overturn Aug. 22 with 52 students inside, killing one and injuring more than 20 others, was found guilty Wednesday of multiple felonies.
A Clark County Common Pleas Court jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday before finding Hermanio Joseph, 36, guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter.
Aiden Clark, 11, died after being ejected from the Northwestern Local Schools bus that overturned in German Township, which is northwest of Springfield and about 57 miles southwest of Columbus. More than 20 other students who were on the bus were injured in the crash.
Joseph, an immigrant from Haiti, had been driving east on Route 41 around 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 22 when the Honda Odyssey minivan he was driving crossed the centerline on the two-lane road and struck the westbound Northwestern Local Schools bus that had been headed west, an Ohio State Highway Patrol investigation determined.
The Springfield News-Sun reported Joseph testified that the sun was in his eyes, which caused him to be unable to see the bus and avoid the crash.
The school bus driver attempted to avoid the collision by driving on the shoulder, The News-Sun reported. The minivan struck the bus on the driver's side, scraping down the side of the bus until it struck the rear wheel, which caused the axle to break. The bus then overturned into a culvert on the north side of the road.
The bus was carrying 52 elementary school students for the first day of school.
Video from the interior and exterior of the bus was played in court during the trial, the News-Sun reported.
Joseph did not have a valid Ohio driver's license and provided OHSP troopers who were investigating the crash with a driver's license from Mexico. Testimony at trial, according to the News-Sun, confirmed Joseph had a state identification card, but not a valid state driver's license.
Joseph will be sentenced May 21.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio man convicted of causing school bus crash that killed 11-year-old
