One UM student ended up in the emergency room and another suffered minor injuries after a RSMAS shuttle crashed on the afternoon of Monday, Feb. 16.
45-year-old Timothy Kowalewski, the shuttle driver, was arrested after students called the police because of his erratic driving. He is facing a DUI charge, two charges of DUI damage to property or person, and one charge of refusal to participate in a breath test.
Senior Alastair Shen, a student on the shuttle, said that Kowalewski missed the normal turn to return to the Coral Gables campus and attempted to complete a dangerous U-turn on the 300 block of South Dixie Hwy.
“Meanwhile, the entire bus is in all 3 lanes of traffic. There’s oncoming traffic on U.S. 1 so basically it’s just all the students in the bus in the face of oncoming traffic,” Shen said. “In doing so, he hits one of the signs on the side of the road, almost collides into the gas station [he had tried to pull into] and runs over two trees.”
Ethan Hart, a junior studying marine biology and ecology, said that he took the shuttle both to and from the Virginia Key campus on Monday. According to Hart, the back window of the shuttle was intact for the ride to the Rosenstiel campus, but it was broken when Kowalewski came to take the students back to the Coral Gables campus.
“We started driving, going over the Virginia Key bridge, and while we’re going over it the back window blew out and fiberglass or something was sprayed everywhere,” the junior said. “Unfortunately, I inhaled a bunch of it so I had to go to the emergency room to get it looked at.”
Hart said that the doctors took an X-ray of his chest and determined that the fiberglass did not get into his lungs, but he says his nose has been very irritated and he has been constantly sneezing with a runny nose.
Freshman Ale Andrade, another student on the shuttle, also suffered minor injuries when the fiberglass hit him. He said that the window was broken when he got onto the shuttle to ride back to the Coral Gables campus, but that the glass was held together by the U decal. During the ride, the glass in the window shattered and went flying.
“I got a bunch [of the fiberglass] on my arm because I tried to catch it because it was going to fall on a girl, a classmate of mine,” Andrade said.
Andrade said that he is grateful the injury — a rash on his arm — was minor and he was able to wash the fiberglass off, especially after he and other students realized that the driver may have been in more accidents earlier that day.
“Once we were finally pulled over, everyone was looking over the bus when we saw that right next to that window [there was] actually the sign of another potential collision that may have happened, which is what caused the window,” Andrade said. “It was sort of like a very scary moment just for everyone involved as we realized this was a lot more serious than we had thought it was.”
In an email exchange with Andrade, a member of UM’s Department of Risk Management offered to “work with [him] to reimburse the expenses” if he had any out-of-pocket payments as a result of his injuries.
In a statement to The Hurricane, the University said, “The Department of Parking and Transportation is working closely with the Dean of Students Office, which offers case management services, to support the student passengers involved in the incident. Medical attention was provided at the scene, and all passengers were transported safely back to campus. The Student Health Service remains available to students who wish to seek additional medical attention, and Risk Management is supporting those students who received medical treatment outside of the University.”
Andrade said that he spoke with a responder at the scene and was told that minor cuts likely caused by the fiberglass were causing the rash, so he did not seek further medical treatment. However, the freshman said that he had to reach out to UM for this support — UM did not approach him first.
The police report indicated that Kowalewski had a suspended license. However, Academy Bus, the company that contracts the shuttle drivers for UM, clarified that his license was suspended because of the charges and was not suspended prior to the incident.
In a statement to The Hurricane, Academy Bus said that it conducts pre-employment driver screening that includes a “query with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Drug & Alcohol Clearing House” well as “random, on-the-spot drug and alcohol tests.”
“Again, even though this happened, we were all extremely lucky that it was only a minor collision with a tree and we didn’t go past into the gas station or be hit by oncoming U.S. 1 traffic,” Andrade said.
Hart expressed concerns about riding in a UM shuttle again.
“It’s obviously scary getting back in one,” he said. “You trust them to keep you safe and the guy showed up drunk and crashed the bus.”
This article was updated at 3:14 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18 to include the information from Academy Bus.