Hazardous conditions ahead. Proceed with extreme caution.

That’s our reply to news Wednesday that the driver is being charged in the Mars school bus crash that injured six students last month.

Adams Township police cited Sandra Boehler, 51, with careless driving after completing their investigation of the Sept. 24 wreck, which occurred in a construction zone on Route 228 at Pittsburgh Street.

The $8 million overhaul of the intersection is part of an ongoing, multimillion-dollar task of widening and straightening the Route 228 corridor connecting Routes 8 and 19.

It was while driving 43 children through this construction zone that Boehler demonstrated “careless disregard for the safety of others” when she failed to keep the bus within its lane of travel “resulting in a serious motor vehicle crash/mass casualty incident,” investigating officer Christopher Kopas wrote in his report.

The charges, filed Monday, sweep aside a multitude of extenuating circumstances that still need to be taken into account. These circumstances amount to testifying witnesses in a case that has not yet earned its right to go before to jury. Consider:

- The wreck happened in a construction zone on Route 228.

- It involved a temporary guide rail that had been damaged in a previous accident at the same location in the same work zone. That the bus struck an already-damaged guide rail denotes two things: first, that there might be a demonstrably unsafe condition; and second, PennDOT had not replaced the guide rail after the first incident: was it because an investigation of the earlier investigation had not yet been completed?

- The school district already has raised the issues of safety and liability. In a letter sent Oct. 1 to state Transportation Secretary Leslie Richards, district solicitor Tom King indicated school board members and administrators “are particularly concerned that the ongoing construction work and the inclusion of numerous jersey barriers makes the site questionable for school bus traffic.”

It would be prudent for the district to continue pressing PennDOT, even if it means lending a hand to the defense of its transportation contractor, A.J. Myers & Sons, and Myers’ drivers.

If the district does nothing to stand up for its drivers, it sends a signal that drivers are not valued; drivers receiving small wages for big responsibilities might be inclined to quit rather than risk humiliation after a work-zone accident that could ruin their reputation and driving record. For the district and the public, the net result could be fewer and lower-quality candidates for bus driver jobs, and the likelihood that they would require greater pay.

It’s plausible that Adams Township Police have made the right call; that driver error caused the school bus accident; that it was pure coincidence it happened in a busy, fluid construction zone — at the precise location of at least one prior wreck. But there’s a lot of distance between the quicksand of plausibility and the solid ground of fact.

On rare occasion, an issue emerges that seems ideally suited for a court fight. This looks like a candidate for a court fight.