By TERRYL ASLA
and SOPHIE BONOMI
North Kitsap Herald

POULSBO — For the third time in the last eight months, the stretch of Highway 305 between Hostmark Street and Lincoln Road was the scene of a vehicle collision — and this time it involved a school bus with 48 children.

At about 2 p.m. on a gray, rainy Oct. 26, a silver Toyota pickup truck going south on Highway 305 tried to turn across traffic into the Subway parking lot. A school bus full of children was headed the other way in the curbside inner lane and the two vehicles collided. It appeared the bus hit the pickup broadside.

The front of the bus sustained minor damage; the pickup was totaled.

“He came out of nowhere,” school bus driver Janine George said as she waited for another school bus to arrive so she could transfer her students. None of the 48 students were injured, according to Jody Matson, spokeswoman for the Poulsbo Fire Department.

The driver and passenger in the pickup were transported by Poulsbo Fire and Rescue to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton, Matson said.

Shay Fairbanks, whose husband is a Port Townsend firefighter, owns the Nordic Coffee Shop directly opposite where the collision occurred. She heard the crash and rushed to help. She said a woman was in the driver’s seat and the male passenger was leaning against her with a three-inch gash on his forehead. “He didn’t respond at first,” Fairbanks said. “But after a couple of minutes, he sat up.” She reported that the male passenger was able to walk to the ambulance.

This is the same stretch of road where, two months earlier on Aug. 15, one driver was seriously injured and the occupants of three other cars were shaken up when an older Toyota Camry slammed into the back of three cars stopped at the traffic light on Highway 305 at Lincoln Road.

Seven months ago, on March 25, at the traffic signal at 305 and Hostmark Street, a pickup driven by James Denall of Poulsbo was rear-ended by a white compact so violently that the hood of the compact was driven underneath the bed of his pickup and then burst into flames. Fortunately, Denall and Olmsted Nursery employee Steven Panosh were able to pry the car door open and rescue the dazed driver of the compact and her passenger before the fire spread.

“This is the third accident here that I’ve seen,” said Fairbanks, looking out at the driving rain and flashing lights through the window of her coffee stand. “Poulsbo has really grown and traffic has gotten bad. People need to drive slow and be very cautious when turning.”