After girl's death, charges filed against bus driver


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SOUTH JORDAN — A bus driver has been charged in connection with the death of a 10-year-old schoolgirl who was killed when she got off one bus and darted in front of an oncoming bus.

School bus operator Troy Daniels, 44, is accused of reckless endangerment and failure to signal when a school bus is stopped, both misdemeanor charges. He was driving Jordan School District bus no. 1402 — the bus Seleny Crosby, 10, was riding on the afternoon of April 30. He has since resigned from his position with the school district.

“… Daniels deviated from his normal routine by pulling to the side of the road … and activated his 4-way hazard flashers while offloading students,” a probable cause statement read. “Daniels chose not to activate his red lights and signals or stop sign in the lane of travel because he needed to hand out flyers to the students as they offloaded.”

Seleny exited the bus that was pulled out of traffic, running in front of it to cross the road, and was struck by another school bus, according to South Jordan police.

"Both Jordan School District policy and state law says he should have been in the travel lane with his red lights and his stop sign illuminated, warning traffic that children had to cross at that location," said Sam Winkler, Master Officer of the South Jordan Police Department.

Winkler said Daniels came forward in the investigation.

"He was very remorseful and wishes he could change the outcome of this, but he did say his normal routine would be on the traffic lane with his lights on, but on this occasion, he deviated from that," Winkler said.


Our hearts go out to the family, and we know this won't bring Seleny back but we sure hope we can stop something like this from happening again.

–Sam Winkler, South Jordan Police Department


Seleny died two days later at Primary Children’s Hospital with her family by her side.

Since her death, investigators have begun to scrutinize the stop. They are looking at possibilities that would make it more safe.

Wednesday, Jordan School District sent out a statement about Daniels and Crosby:

"Our hearts are broken over the terrible accident that took the life of Seleny Crosby on May 2. This tragedy has deeply impacted her family, friends, classmates and community and we continue to feel a loss with them.

"Jordan School District has cooperated fully with all agencies involved throughout this investigation in an effort to prevent anything like this from ever happening again in our community."

A hearing for Daniels is set for Sept. 3.

Winkler urged all motorists to exercise a little more caution as year-round schools come back from their three-week break at the end of July.

"Not only the school bus drivers, but the motorists out there, they may believe that it's summertime, but they're still going to see buses out there beginning at the end of this month," Winkler said. "We want them to be really cautious around school buses, school zones, anywhere children may be congregating, and to take it a little bit slower and watch out to what's going on around them."

"Our hearts go out to the family, and we know this won't bring Seleny back but we sure hope we can stop something like this from happening again," Winkler said.

Contributing: Cleon Wall

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