Middle school bus in wreck that killed Midlands student had prior tire problems
The school bus involved in a wreck that killed a Midlands middle school student in April had at least two previous tire issues within the last two years, including one that also sent the vehicle skidding off a South Carolina interstate.
The prior issues were documented in maintenance reports The State requested from the Lexington 2 school district after eighth grader Jose Maria Gonzalez-Linares was killed when a bus carrying Pine Ridge Middle School students flipped over on Interstate 77 in Chester County on its way back from a field trip.
The April 17 accident wasn’t the first time the bus had experienced tire problems, the documents show.
On June 15, 2023, the same bus was transporting the Brookland-Cayce High School football team on Interstate 26 when the front driver’s side tire blew out, “causing the bus to go off into the median striking the safety wire,” a collision report filed with the S.C. Department of Education says. That accident occurred at mile marker 67, 13 miles south of Clinton or almost 50 miles from the Cayce high school.
There were 27 people on board the bus at the time, although no one suffered any injuries, the report says. The bus had to be towed back to Lexington County and suffered around $47,000 in damage, an estimate from a body shop says. It was out of commission for a year.
When the bus did eventually return to service, it suffered another “busted” tire on April 3 that required a tire shop to be called out for repair. Documents don’t give any more details about that incident, which happened just two weeks before the wreck that killed 13-year-old Gonzalez-Linares.
A body shop billed the district more than $800 for the damage, due to a metal rod in the sidewall of the tire.
Lexington 2 declined to comment on any of the records produced by the Freedom of Information Act request, citing an ongoing investigation into the fatal April crash.
The wreck sent 35 other students and four adults to a local hospital for treatment, including some passengers from two other school buses traveling on the same trip, which had to maneuver suddenly to avoid the accident.
Leon Cureton, the Lexington 2 bus driver who was at the wheel during the April 17 accident, wrote an account of the incident that was provided in response to The State’s records request. He states that he performed a routine pre-trip inspection on the bus to determine if it could be operated in a safe manner, including checking interior and exterior components.
“All tires were checked and concluded to be safe for travel,” he writes.
Cureton describes hearing a “boom” that appeared to come from the front passenger side.
“The bus became difficult to steer and I made contact with a guard rail. This impact caused the bus to flip and land onto its right/passenger side before coming to rest.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
.jpg)