Cedar Park Teen Critically Injured In Wreck With School Bus

CEDAR PARK, TX — A Cedar Park teenager sustained "incapacitating injuries" when she lost control of her vehicle and slammed into a school bus on Wednesday, according to reports.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson told CBS Austin the 17-year-old was driving east on Farm to Market Road 1431 when she over-corrected after veering off the road at a curve, hitting a Marble Falls ISD bus as a result. The news station reported the impact caused the battery compartment of the bus to catch fire, but the flames were quickly extinguished.

According to DPS, none of the 11 children on the bus at the time were seriously injured in the crash that occurred about a half-mile east of Marble Falls. As for the teen, the DPS spokesperson told the news station she suffered "incapacitating injuries."

In the wreck's aftermath, the news station spoke to area residents who said they've lost count as to the number of crashes that have occurred along the same FM 1431 stretch of roadway in the past. Plans are afoot to expand the roadway, some residents noted, but work has yet to begin.

One resident pointed to the number of impatient drivers who pass others — an illegal maneuver on that roadway. One woman interviewed told CBS Austin she saw the driver of a Corvette accelerate before passing four to five cars going up the road's hilly topography.

The Texas Department of Transportation told the news station more than 140 wrecks involving more than 240 people have occurred on the roadway in the past decade. The level peaked in 2017, when 24 crashes affecting some 40 people occurred, according to the report.

So for this year, there have been 16 crashes along the roadway stretch, one claiming the life of a Marble Falls police officer, Andrew Howe. The officer died along the roadway in April while riding his motorcycle to work, the news station reported.

>>> Read the full story at CBS Austin