Chester County High School Bus Overturned In Nashville: At Least 20 Students Injured, 2 Critically, On I-65
At least 20 students were injured, two critically, after a Chester County High School bus overturned on I-65 in Nashville on Friday morning, WSMV reports.
Just before 11:00 a.m., the bus was exiting I-65 on the way to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel for the Tennessee state convention for the National Beta Club.
Some of the students were taken to Skyline Medical Center, while the others were taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital. It has been revealed that two of the students are in critical, but stable condition. Other students had injuries ranging from serious to not so serious. One student has a broken collarbone, while a couple students have severe arm injuries.
BREAKING: Chester Co. School bus overturned in Nashville. 33 injured. I'm on scene and will bring you updates @WBBJ7News pic.twitter.com/jxLXhan1XT
— Eric Perry (@Ericperrytv) November 18, 2016
As of noon, the area was still blocked off, and the Nashville Fire Department has asked that people avoid this area until it is re-opened. The Tennessee Department of Transportation is estimating the area to be closed until 3:00 p.m.
According to WKRN, two additional buses were traveling together on their way to the convention. As many as nine ambulances reported to the scene, as well as multiple emergency crews.
Troy Kilzer, the School Director, is supposed to make a statement when more details become available. The district did send a bus to pick up the uninjured children and took them to Metro’s East Precinct.
Metro police spokesman Don Aaron made a statement at the scene of the accident.
“The first bus driver lost control of the vehicle, the bus went to the left side of the exit ramp, she over corrected back to the right and the bus struck a guardrail and overturned.”
The Tennessean described the scene after the crash occurred. The bus was overturned on its right side. The other two buses were in the northbound lane, and they stopped behind the accident.
The crash team of the police department is investigating the crash and why it occurred. It was further revealed that the bus had only been in service for about a year and is fairly new.
On Tuesday morning, a school bus overturned in Norfolk, Virginia, causing injuries to students. The bus was traveling to Norfolk Technical Vocational Center from Granby High School when the bus hit a wall prior to overturning on the ramp to I-64.
Nine children were transported to Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center or Sentara Norfolk General Hospital to be treated for minor injuries. All students were reportedly released from the hospital by Tuesday afternoon.
Two students, Brian Roper and Semaj Haynes, told reporters that they helped students off the bus after it wrecked.
“The next thing I knew, all I could see was the ground, the window had shattered. So my friend Sean fell on top of me and that’s about it, and I was just trying to help people out,” Brian said.
“Lots of people were just going crazy, screaming, crying and we just helped everybody off,” Haynes added.
The students revealed that the bus might have been traveling too fast. Callie Goodwyn, 71, told police that the sun was blinding her. Officers did charge Goodwyn with failure to maintain control of a vehicle, as well as reckless driving.
After this accident, many parents raised concern about the school buses not having seat belts. According to the United States Department of Transportation, large school buses are not required to have belts. Smaller buses with a gross weight of 10,000 pounds or less are required to have a lap belt.
The Administrator from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Mark R. Rosekind, hopes to change that requirement. It is his hope that all school buses will eventually be required to be equipped with three-point belts for each student, 13 News Now reports.
[Featured Image by Mark Humphrey/AP Images]
