Investigators looking for cause of fatal school bus fire

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Federal investigators looking into a fatal school bus fire in western Iowa this week are examining the health of the driver and the state of the bus.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Pete Kostowski said Thursday that investigators will also determine whether the bus should have undergone electrical system repairs as part of a recall of certain 2005 models of International brand school buses.

The 74-year-old bus driver, Donnie Hendricks, and a 16-year-old student, Megan Klindt, were killed in the fire Tuesday morning shortly after Klindt was picked up at her family’s farm southeast of Oakland, Iowa, about 35 miles (55 kilometres) east of Omaha, Nebraska.

Kostowski says investigators will also try to determine why Klindt and Hendricks didn’t escape from the bus.