2 Die In Ripley High School Bus Crash
Female Student Among Dead In Ripley School Bus Accident
POSTED: 5:11 pm CST March 29, 2005
UPDATED: 12:58 am CST March 30, 2005
RIPLEY, Okla. -- A school bus collided with a pickup truck near this small Payne County community Tuesday afternoon, killing a 16-year-old Ripley High School girl and the driver of the truck, officials said.
2 Die In Payne County School Bus Crash
Sandra Deann Combs, 16, of Agra, a passenger on the school bus, and Carl Edward Tarver, 58, (Carl is the brother of Kathy Tarver Hanks, wife of Randy Hanks of Ripley. Phillip is very close friends with the family, and Randy and I and Phil used to race pigeons together!) of Cushing, were killed in the crash, said Diann Warnock, a communications officer with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
The driver of the bus, Jimmie Sue Blose, 50, (Jimmie is a dear friend of Sharon Robinson, a close personal friend of our family. Jimmie is also a former client of ours at the Feed Barn. She is a super super lady who would do anything anytime to help ANYONE! I can still hear her wonderful voice and see her big ole smile... ) and a passenger in Tarver's truck, Linda Tarver, 55, both were transported to area hospitals, Warnock said. Their conditions weren't immediately available.
The pickup, pulling a cattle trailer, was headed northbound on State Highway 18 and the bus was headed east on a county road when the crash occurred, according to OHP Lt. Brandon Kopepasah.
Eric Sams, an employee of an auto shop near the intersection where the crash occurred, witnessed the crash.
"The bus was spun completely around," Sams said. "The front axle of the bus bounced off onto the road and onto the bus."
Ripley softball coach Tony Cazzelle said classes would be voluntary Wednesday and that counselors would be on hand to meet with students.
"It's just a little town, and something like this touches everybody," Cazzelle said. "I know that everybody here knows everybody, and half of them are related."
Cazzelle was coaching the girls' softball team when he found out about the crash.
"We finished the game, and I told the girls after the game," he said.
He said Combs "was a real good friend to several players. We all prayed..."
The Ripley district has about 300 elementary pupils and 125 high school students.
Ed's Note:... please remember these familys in prayer as we go about our lives this day. They will be struggling to understand, as we all are, why, when, what, how, but in the end, it's all God's plan.... The only thing we can do is be ready to go... when the knock comes... on our door, and pray for guidance and understanding of the events... and help and grace and care for the familys... Carl was a wonderful Christian man, as is Jimmie. Sometimes in these deals, those that survive, really don't.
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