One school bus rear-ended another at the intersection of Boggs Hill Road with Sugar Street on the morning of February 22, according to Newtown Police.

At the time of the incident, both vehicles, owned by All-Star Transportation bus company, were traveling down Boggs Hill heading toward Reed Intermediate School, having just departed from Head O’Meadow Elementary School. Andrea Delorenzo, 51, of Newtown was operating the first bus, while Peter Sandler, 56, of Sandy Hook, operated the second, following behind her.

Delorenzo and Sandler had both come to a stop at the Sugar Street intersection, and were preparing to take a right turn.

Newtown Public Schools Director of Business and Finance Tanja Vadas explained Delorenzo “crept up a little bit and turned her head to see what was coming.” After seeing a car making its way down Sugar Street, she came to a stop.

Vadas recounted that at this point, Sandler “rolled up and didn’t realize she had stopped so abruptly. He probably thought she was up a little bit farther. He basically rolled into the back of her.”

The police reported that despite “functional damage” to both vehicles, they were later able to be driven away from the scene without issue. Cracked grills were observed on both buses, as well as a dent in the bumper of the bus in front, according to Vadas.

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and local police then swiftly arrived on scene and interviewed all the passengers of each vehicle. During the impact, each bus had a partial load of only ten students, having already completed the initial round of drop-offs. Delorenzo was transported to the hospital by Newtown Ambulance along with a single juvenile passenger of her vehicle, out of an abundance of caution.

Vadas shared that “the student was back at school the next day, and the driver is fine, back at work.”

All the remaining students were transported to Reed Intermediate School without issue, due to the assistance of an additional All-Star Transportation bus that arrived after a school administrator had finished assisting the police with student care.

Vadas also made it clear that “All-Star does take any kind of accident or safety concern very seriously, so that driver will be retrained.”

Sandler will be taken off the road for a period of some days, during which a training period will be undertaken to be followed by a comprehensive evaluation of his driving ability.

“They’re responsible for the damages to their vehicles because they own them,” she added. “It won’t cost the schools anything.”

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Reporter Owen Tanzer can be reached at owen@thebee.com.