COA rules for defendants after accident near school bus.

Byline: Thomas Franz

The drivers of a school bus and a separate car were found to not be at fault for an accident that resulted in a student being hit while he was crossing a road to board his bus.

In Schaub v. Seyler, Herman and Traverse City Area Public Schools (MiLW No. 08-98872, 17 pages), Michigan Court of Appeals Judges David H. Sawyer and Brock A. Swartzle granted motions for summary disposition by the defendants after the Grand Traverse County Circuit Court determined the plaintiff was more than 50 percent at fault for the accident.

Judge William B. Murphy concurred in part and dissented in part.

"As a practical matter, if the plaintiff is found to be more than 50 percent at fault for walking in front of the bus, we made the decision to move up from there and see if we could follow on that front," said defense attorney Christopher J. Marker of O'Neill, Wallace & Doyle PC in Saginaw.

Accident facts

Around 6:50 a.m. on Oct. 11, 2016, ninth-grader Logan Schaub tried to cross County Road 663 between Norton Road and Blair Town Hall Road. He was wearing a black sweatshirt with a reflective logo on the front, a black hat and black sweatpants with white stripes.

RyAnn Elise Herman was a substitute bus driver that day for Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS). She missed Schaub's stop on 663 before turning around and driving just past his stop again and on the opposite side of the road from Schaub.

Herman pulled off to the side of the road as eight cars passed the bus over a two-minute span.

Video footage from the bus shows that a student on the bus yelled out to Schaub to board the bus. At that point, Herman did not have the bus's red flashing lights or stop sign activated.

Schaub crossed the road, but was struck by a vehicle driven by James Seyler. Seyler was driving within the 55 mph speed limit and was not distracted.

Herman activated the bus's emergency lights immediately after Schaub was hit. The panel wrote that Herman said she didn't activate the lights because of training she received from TCAPS, and that doing so would have been unlawful since the bus was already stopped and it wouldn't have provided enough warning of a student boarding.

Herman also told an investigating deputy it was her intent to activate the emergency lights, re-enter the road and backup the short distance to the stop.

No traffic citations were issued to Seyler or Herman. However, a citation was issued to Schaub.

Court motions

Schaub's father filed a...