​​This information is preliminary and subject to change.  

Update October 28, 2025: We issued three urgent recommendations. See What We Recommended below for details, and Report HIR-25-07: Ensuring Passenger Seat Belt Use on School Buses​​​ for more information.

Release Date 4 September 2025

​On Wednesday, August 13, 2025, about 3:14 p.m. central daylight time, a 2025 Blue Bird school bus, owned and operated by the Leander Independent School District and occupied by a 78-year-old driver and 46 student passengers, was traveling south on Nameless Road in Leander, Travis County, Texas. Nameless Road is a two-lane undivided roadway with one northbound and one southbound lane, and a speed limit of 45 mph. The lanes of travel were delineated by a double yellow line. A forward-facing video from the vehicle showed that the school bus drifted left across the centerline and then to the right, departing the right edge line as it negotiated a left horizontal curve in the roadway. After leaving the roadway, the bus crossed an embankment, overturned, and came to rest adjacent to the roadway.

Preliminary information indicated that many students were not restrained with the available seat belts and were displaced from their seats during the roadway departure and rollover event. Sixteen passengers sustained injuries ranging from serious to minor and the driver sustained minor injuries. At the time of the crash, the roadway was wet from light rain.

​Parties to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation are:

• ​Texas Department of Public Safety
• Travis County Public Works Transportation and Natural Resources Department

All aspects of the crash remain under investigation while the NTSB determines the probable cause, with the intent of issuing safety recommendations to prevent similar events.

As a result of this investigation, we made the following new urgent safety recommendations:

To the State of Texas:

Establish, distribute, and require implementation of enforceable policies and procedures for seat belt use on school buses, with routine audits to ensure compliance with Texas Education Code 34.013, for all school districts in Texas so that every student and driver on school buses equipped with passenger seat belts is properly restrained by lap/shoulder belts or five-point harnesses on every trip. The policies and procedures should at a minimum include:

• mandatory pre-departure driver instruction to students to properly belt and periodic pre-departure inspection by drivers or other staff to ensure that each student is properly belted;
• periodic review of onboard video camera footage, when equipped, to verify seat belt use; and
• increased training and education of school administrators and staff, bus drivers, parents, and students about proper seat belt use and adjustment, seat belt policies and procedures, the safety benefits of seat belt use, and the importance of being properly belted. (H-25-25)

To the Leander Independent School District:

Establish, implement, and routinely audit adherence to enforceable policies and procedures for seat belt use on school buses, in compliance with Texas Education Code 34.013, so that every student and driver on school buses equipped with passenger seat belts is properly restrained by lap/shoulder bels or five-point harnesses on every trip. The policies and procedures should at a minimum include:

• mandatory pre-departure driver instruction to students to properly belt and periodic pre-departure inspection by drivers or other staff to ensure that each student is properly belted;
• periodic review of onboard video camera footage, when equipped, to verify seat belt use; and
• increased training and education of school administrators and staff, bus drivers, parents, and students about proper seat belt use and adjustment, seat belt policies and procedures, the safety benefits of seat belt use, and the importance of being properly belted. (H-25-26)

To the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT), the National School Transportation Association (NSTA), and the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS):

Inform your members of the circumstances of the Leander, Texas, rollover crash, the lack of seat belt use by most passengers, and the need for school districts to establish enforceable policies and procedures for seat belt use on school buses so that every student and driver on every school bus equipped with passenger seat belts is properly restrained by lap/shoulder belts or five-point harnesses, as appropriate, on every trip. The policies and procedures should at a minimum include:

• mandatory pre-departure driver instruction to students to properly belt and periodic pre-departure inspection by drivers or other staff to ensure that each student is properly belted;
• periodic review of onboard video camera footage, when equipped, to verify seat belt use; and
• increased training and education of school administrators and staff, bus drivers, parents, and students about proper seat belt use and adjustment, seat belt policies and procedures, the safety benefits of seat belt use, and the importance of being properly belted. (H-25-27)​