School bus driver ran red light before hitting teen, police say

CEDAR RAPIDS - A school bus driver ran a red light before hitting and inuring a 15-year-old boy Thursday morning on Mount Vernon Road, according to officials.

The driver, Darla Rose Ogden, 53, of Cedar Rapids, has been cited for failure to obey a traffic control device, according to Cedar Rapids Public Safety spokesman Greg Buelow.

The boy, Cameron Michael Smeby of Cedar Rapids, received serious injuries and remains hospitalized at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Buelow said in an email Friday.

Smeby, who the district said is a student at Washington High, was crossing Mount Vernon Road SE near 26th Street at a crosswalk early Thursday when Ogden, driving a Cedar Rapids Community School District bus, ran a red light, striking Smeby, Buelow said.

Cedar Rapids officers and firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after the incident was reported about 7:40 a.m. The bus had a large crack in its front windshield, The Gazette reported. No students on the bus were injured, the school district said.

Ogden will be investigated by the district, according to a Thursday statement from Linda Noggle, the district's executive director of human resources.

'Any situation where there is alleged misconduct, the district ensures it is appropriately investigated,” Noggle said.

The less than a half-mile stretch of Mount Vernon Road between Forest Drive SE and Memorial Drive SE, near where the boy was hit, is a crash-prone stretch of road. There have been 77 crashes - 24 with injuries - in the past 10 years, according to data from the Iowa Department of Transportation.