TOLEDO, Ohio — The driver of a minivan that crashed into a school bus in the Dayton area was arrested and charged with aggravated vehicular homicide on Wednesday. One student was killed in the crash Tuesday and 20 others were injured.
Hermanio Joseph, 35, was driving without a valid license when his Honda Oddysey crashed into the bus, causing it to overturn, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The names and ages of the student who died and the others who were injured have not been released.
WTOL 11 talked to a survivor of the 2007 Bluffton University bus crash, who said hearing about the incident brought him back to the tragic day that took seven lives.
If there is any one person who can understand the experience of the Dayton bus crash victims, it's Tim Berta. He survived the crash in 2007 but spent months afterward recovering from a traumatic brain injury.
"When I see things like that, my heart goes out to them because I've been there," he said.
Berta said after Bluffton bus crash, he was critically injured and had to process the loss of five of his teammates on his college's baseball team. He said that the victims of the bus crash Tuesday will likely face a similar question of how to process the death of a classmate as they recover from injuries.
"It was desperation, it was hopelessness, it was sadness," Berta said. "I'll just put it this way, I don't want to be in that place again."
Berta had to use a wheelchair during his recovery and said he was told he would likely never be able to walk again or learn anything new due to the brain trauma. But he decided he wasn't going to accept those limitations.
"I made a choice to honor my fallen teammates, and it was my job to improve as much as I could and to heal for them, for their families and myself," Berta said.
WTOL chronicled his recovery from his life-threatening injury to taking his first steps. For the victims of the bus crash Tuesday, Berta shared the following advice:
"Do not listen to any predictions that say you are done improving, because people told me that when I was in the wheelchair, still drinking thickened liquids and still unable to drive. And now I can do all three of those things."
WTOL also talked to State Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, who pointed out that neither bus in either crash had seatbelts and that Ohio is one of the 42 states that does not mandate seatbelts in school buses. She said the tragedy Tuesday could have been avoided with seatbelt requirements.
"This tragedy could have been avoided if in 2020, when State Sen. John Barnes introduced legislation to require seat belts, it had more than a first hearing," Hicks-Hudson said.
However, critiques at the time on spending and feasibility hindered the legislation.
Hicks-Hudson said the bus crash in the Dayton area, she's ready to look into drafting new legislation to bring back that idea.
She said legislation could take months or even years to pass, so in the meantime, she urges people to exercise caution on the road and avoid distracted driving.