Most School Bus Lights Off When Fatal Crash Occurred

Most of the lights on a private-school bus apparently were not on when the vehicle collided with a potato truck just after sunset, killing the school’s principal, Washington State Patrol investigators have found.

Country Haven Academy Principal Ray Cornforth, who was driving the bus carrying 49 students, died in Saturday’s crash on Washington 124 east of Burbank. Three students and the truck driver remained hospitalized Thursday.

Investigators checked the clearance lights around the top of the bus and by the door and found just one that appeared to be working at the time of the crash, state patrol Capt. Marsh Pugh said.

All the other lights that remained intact on the outside of the bus showed evidence of being off, he said.

Police also have no record of the bus being inspected by the state in the past two years. Inspections, mandatory for public school buses, are voluntary for private schools like Country Haven, which is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.