School bus, truck collide; 2 killed
By PATTI WEAVER World Correspondent
3/30/2005
View in Print (PDF) Format
CUSHING -- Two people -- one of them a student -- were killed Tuesday in a crash of a Ripley school bus and a truck pulling a stock trailer at Oklahoma 18 and Eseco Road, eight miles southwest of Cushing.
Another student aboard the bus and the bus driver were injured.
The truck driver, Carl Edward Tarver, 58, of Cushing, was killed in the crash and his passenger, Linda Tarver, 55, was injured, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol communications officer told The Associated Press
Ripley Elementary School Principal Lisa Pitts said that Sandra Combs, a 10th-grader who recently turned 16, was killed.
"Her dad, Carlos Combs, was driving into his driveway when he saw the bus spinning" on the highway less than a half-mile away from his home, Pitts said.
"It's sickening. It breaks your heart," Pitts said, fighting tears as she stood across from the Ripley school bus, with its front end demolished.
"We had nine kids on the bus -- a sixth-grader, junior high and high school students. This is the end of the route," Pitts said.
Parents arrived at the accident scene quickly, she said. "Kids passed around a cell phone and called their parents," she said.
Another girl, a 10th-grader, was also injured in the crash, Pitts said.
"She was taken to the Cushing hospital. She'll be all right. She's in fair condition," said Pitts, who did not release that girl's name.
"Both girls were in the front seat. Sandra was behind the driver; the other girl was on the other side," Pitts said.
Ripley School Superintendent Kenny Beams said that the bus driver, Jimmie Sue Blose, who teaches music in the elementary school and was driving a substitute route, "was hurt pretty bad."
Blose was flown by helicopter to St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, where she was in critical condition, Pitts said.
A witness, Eric Sams, 21, who works as a car fabricator at Wheels of Past Restoration directly across from the accident scene, said he had stepped outside at 4:03 p.m. for a smoke break when he heard "a loud screech."
"I heard a big boom, like a bomb. I ran for my boss, Dennis Francis, for help, to call 911.
"The truck loaded with cattle hit the front of the bus," which was going east on Eseco Road crossing Oklahoma 18, while the truck was traveling north on the highway, Sams said.
"The bus had stopped and went on," Sams said.
"The bus was taking off. The truck hit the front end of the bus. The bus spun completely around. The front axle of the bus bounced off, onto the road.
"The axle bounced, hitting the front of the bus," Sams said. "Four of us moved it, about 40 feet, out of the road."
He said he, his employer and co-workers, Michael Talent, 18, and Andy Johnson, 21, all worked together to move the about 500-pound axle.
"Four or five of the kids got out of the emergency exit of the bus. The bus driver looked slumped over in the seat.
"The girl who died was lying in the stairs of the bus. Her leg was caught under the bifold door.
"Michael and I jacked the bus up trying to get the door off her leg. Some men were yanking on the door," Sams said.
"It's the worst thing that ever happened that I've seen. It happened so fast."
Cushing Deputy Fire Chief Brent Kerr said, "This is one of the worst accidents we've had here in quite a while; a lot of people, a lot of chaos."
Neither Kerr nor Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Jerry Coyle would release the names of any of the victims.
Superintendent Beams said that Wednesday "will be a voluntary day" in which students would not be required to be in school.
Counselors will be there for students who attend classes Wednesday, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment