It happened about 7:13 am this morning. I was fully loaded with kids and taking them to the local Middle School. There were 36 kids on the bus. The kids (and I) are all OK. The kids that were taken to the hospital had bumped their heads on the windows and had knots on their heads. They wanted to be checked out as a precautionary measure, and they have been released from the hospital.
A lot of parents were notified (kids calling home from their cell phones I imagine) and arrived pretty quickly!
The car involved ran the red light from the “right turn only” lane on RT 29 and went straight instead of turning. In doing so, the car struck the bus that was turning left onto RT 29 from CR Road broadside right under the driver’s seat. When the car struck the bus, it pushed the bus sideways a few feet. By the time I got the bus under control it had travelled completely into the path of all traffic trying to drive on RT 29 northbound. It totalled the bus and the car. I was told to leave the bus where it was until “maintenance” came out and cleared it for travel.
The driver of the car was a woman, and there was a man that was a passenger. They were both taken to the hospital. I’ve been told that they are OK too.
Boy there sure were a lot of emergency vehicles! And they arrived very fast – I was amazed how fast they arrived. There were a lot of witnesses giving statements and the police said that they were going to charge the driver of the car; I was in the clear. They said that there were no skid marks to show that the driver even tried to slow down before hitting the bus! They said that she had just pulled out of the BP gas station, which is why I didn’t see her when I was pulling out to cross the road – she wasn’t there when I started to pull out! I don’t know how fast she was driving, but she must have been going pretty fast to push the bus several feet sideways!
Eventually a different bus showed up to transport the kids to school. And a sub driver and bus were used to do my elementary school run for later that morning. I understand that run started late.
As for me, I’m shaken up and I imagine that I’ll have some stiff muscles for a few days! I went home and soaked in a hot tub for about a half hour or so and then rested in bed until it was time to go back to work.
I drove a different bus this afternoon and the kids were all fine. (Excited, but fine.) I told them all how proud I was of them for being brave and cooperating and doing what they were asked to do.
I’m the kind of person that goes on “auto-pilot” in an emergency and does what needs to be done and “falls apart” later. I imagine sometime this weekend I’ll sit down and have a good cry. And I imagine that I’ll have a few nightmares about it too!