Route 18 Manhole Cover Fixed, But Then Fails, Before New Bedford School Bus Accident

On Friday, a manhole cover that was missing on Route 18 was reported and fixed earlier this week, but then failed before a school bus accident on Thursday.

According to South Coast Today.com, there were no injuries reported when a mini bus from the New Public School System tried to dodge the open manhole. The bus then pulled onto the right shoulder of the highway’s northbound side, near I-195, a little after 11am Thursday. On duty police officer, Tony Almeida, “who was on duty at a nearby construction site, stated that cars were swerving, and almost hitting each other.” The accident could have been much worse.

One driver, one adult, and one child was aboard the bus at the time of the accident.

In an email on Friday, Massachusetts Department of Transportation spokeswoman Amanda Skahan responded to questions about the repair process.

Skahan stated, “MassDOT was first made aware of the missing manhole cover on Tuesday (Jan. 19), around 7:45am, and following that, Highway District Maintenance staff investigated and replaced the missing manhole cover. At some time between Tuesday morning when the cover was reinstalled and (Thursday), the manhole cover failed. MassDOT is investigating the reason for why the cover failed, with one possibility being a potentially unknown crack in the cover.

On Thursday morning, “MassDOT was notified of the accident involving the school bus and the missing manhole cover, and MassDOT Highway instructed the contractor, Cardi Corp (working on the Wamustta Railroad Bridge over Route 18) to do a permanent repair to the manhole and cover,” The work on the manhole cover was completed on Thursday night.

With additional reporting by Sal Lopez