Mom upset no one told her of bus crash

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A crash involving a school bus has an Albuquerque mom fired up and claiming no one from the school, the district or the bus company said a word about it.

The kids weren't injured in the crash, but the parent in this case said her message is simple.  She wants someone to tell her when her kids are in an accident.

When a school bus crashed near Eldorado High School last week, junior Jesse Garcia and his little brother were on board.

"They said he (the bus driver) got distracted just for a little while, and then when he looked back it was a little too late to press the brakes," Jesse recalled. He said his bus driver rear-ended another car, and that he and other students jolted forward.
   
No one was hurt, but Jesse's mom said she didn't find out until he got home.

"My kids came home and told me they were in a bus accident, and I got no notification from the school or the bus company," Teresa Garcia told KRQE News 13.

Teresa said her sons were 40 minutes late to class that morning because of the crash. She said the only sign something had happened was an automated message from the school that one of her sons was late to his first class.

Hours later, her sons explained why they were late to school.

"She sounded surprised at first, thinking we were joking, and then she realized we weren't," said Jesse.

A spokesperson for Albuquerque Public Schools told News 13 it is school practice to notify parents in the event of an accident.  Garcia claimed that didn't happen in this case.

The crash wasn't as bad as some crashes involving buses, but Teresa said that's not the point.  When she went to the school to ask why she wasn't notified, she said she was stone-walled.

"I went, I called the school.  They're all blaming the bus company, the bus company is saying it's the school's responsibility," Garcia said. "It is their responsibility to let us know when something happens to our kids at any given time."

Aside from stating its procedure to tell parents if their kids are involved in a bus accident, an APS spokesperson said she couldn't comment further on this incident because she wasn't able to reach school officials due to spring break.

News 13 also contacted the bus company in this case, which said it's normally the school's responsibility to notify parents of a crash.