QUINCY - Answers could be long in coming as to what caused a school bus full of Quincy students to roll off state Route 281 Monday morning.

"I'm guessing it will take about three months," said Detective Sergeant Jerry Cooper with the Washington State Patrol Major Accident Investigation Team.

Cooper's team is currently handling 25 separate crash cases, some more than six months old. The Quincy bus crash is the latest in a glut of new cases that Cooper said the three veteran "collision reconstructionists" are doing their best to sort out as quickly as possible.

"We seem to be having a run on cases right now," he said. "I did just lose my vehicle systems analyst to retirement and am awaiting a replacement, but that takes time as well."

While he isn't able to confirm yet exactly what led the bus to careen off the road, injuring the driver and 38 students, Cooper said he can strike some possibilities off the list.

Nothing appears to be wrong with the bus itself - no blown tires or mechanical failures - and environmental conditions at the time of the crash were reportedly ideal, Cooper said. The section of SR 281 is straight with good visibility and was bare and dry when the crash occurred.

Speed was not a factor, as witnesses confirmed the bus driver, Donna K. Eaton of Quincy, was traveling at just under the limit at the time of the crash. Cooper said witnesses also told him there were no animals running across the road or interference by other vehicles that may have caused the bus to swerve suddenly.

Cooper said he spoke briefly with Eaton and plans to get a formal statement from her in the near future. Student statements about the crash are also pending, he said, as the Washington State Patrol is enlisting the aid of parents and the Quincy School District in the process.

"We want parents to know we're not going to go to the school and take a sixth-grader out of class and question him," Cooper said. "This was a traumatic event for all the kids involved."

The bus was fitted with two mounted cameras, but Cooper said both point toward students inside the vehicle and a preliminary look at the footage shows no immediately apparent cause for the crash.

The Washington State Patrol plans to release more information as it becomes available, he said.

"There is so much to evaluate, it's going to take awhile," he said.