Inside ‘A Fatal Field Trip’

What should have been a routine trip home from a local zoo turned into the deadliest school bus crash in Texas’ recent history. The crash left a 5-year-old boy and an adult dead, and dozens of other children suffered serious injuries and emotional trauma. How did this happen?  

In an in-depth series, a reporting team from the Austin American-Statesman set off to answer several unanswered questions. Their deep investigation earned them the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize at this year’s National Awards for Education Reporting ceremony. 

K-12 education reporter Keri Heath and Latino communities reporter Emiliano Tahui Gómez join EWA public editor Emily Richmond to discuss their award-winning work, which involved deep data mining to expose where the state’s safety regulations for students and motorists fell short.