WEARE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (Oceana County Press) - The 89-year-old Pentwater man who was driving a flat-bed farming truck that rear-ended a Hart Public Schools bus last Wednesday, May 15, has died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, said Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast.
Laverne Clarence Monton passed away Tuesday morning, May 21, Mast said.
The bus transporting 47 students was rear-ended by the 1995 Ford F800 on Oceana Drive near Jackson Road shortly after 3:30 p.m.
The bus driver – a 59-year-old Hart woman – received a minor injury as did a 14-year-old male student, according to the sheriff’s office accident report. Some parents indicated that they transported their children to medical facilities for injuries sustained in the crash.
The bus driver “stated she came to a complete stop at the bus stop at 5254 N. Oceana Dr., when the school bus was rear ended” by the truck, the report states.
A witness told police that the truck “failed to stop for the school bus, which was stopped in the road at a bus stop” and it rear ended the bus, the report states.
Monton was not wearing a seat belt, according to the report.
The Oceana County Sheriff’s Office, Life EMS, the Hart Area Fire Department, Michigan State Police and Pentwater Fire and Rescue responded to the scene.
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