Bus Crash Injures Third Graders

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By Debbie Williams Reporter

M50o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Bus Crash Injures Third Graders

Published: Wed, May 28, 2008 - 4:48 pm

Debbie Williams

Two elementary school students and two adults will spend the night in the hospital after surviving a scary bus crash. The bus full of third graders on field trip collided with an SUV Wednesday morning on I-10, east of Pensacola and rolled over twice. Seat belts on the bus are being credited with saving 18 lives.

"It happened so fast," says Paul Atwell. He was driving west on I-10. "I was in my lane and the next thing I know all I see is yellow and I had no where to go."

An Okaloosa County school bus carrying third graders, from Walker Elementary in Crestview, was on it's way to NAS Pensacola for a field trip. The bus collided with Atwell's Chevy Tahoe according to Lt. Steve Preston with the Florida Highway Patrol. "The bus traveled into the median and overturned approximately two times. The bus was loaded with 14 children and four adults."

When Atwell realized what had happened, he ran to the bus, ripped the door open and what he saw inside he says looked like a war zone. "Kids were screaming, crying, bleeding. The bus driver she seemed to be the one hurt the worse so that's who I started dealing with. Somebody handed me a first aid kit and everybody started doing what they could."

When paramedic Gerald Ward got there, kids were out of the bus and sitting in the median. "Cuts, bruises, abrasions, may have a couple of broken bones, had a couple with some abdominal injuries but that's about the extent of it." He says all the kids were wearing seat belts and that probably made the difference between life and death. "After what I saw today, it's all seat belts. There is no debate in my mind had they not had seat belts on today the tragedy we have here would be much worse."

Atwell says he was on his way to Pensacola to meet his ex-wife and daughter at a doctors appointment. Earlier they had flipped a coin to see who his daughter would ride with and his ex-wife won the coin toss. But Atwell says he ended up being the big winner because his daughter wasn't with him when the crash occurred.

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My little boy starts school next year, he has been able to open a seatbelt since he was 3-1/2 to 4 years old, the kind in my car are the pushbutton type. (hard to Operate) If they use the same type of belts that are used on airplanes the “younger children wouldn’t be able to free themselves” is a pretty lame arguement. Thankfully we live close to the elementary school he will be attending. I hope and pray we have seatbelts on those busses before he starts riding them.

Posted by atbman on 05/29/08 - 9:40 am • Report Abuse

A MEN! ATBMAN, Some of the arguments against it were, It would cost to much(probably about a $1.00 to $1.50 a child) when the bus is manufactured, but how much value do you put on a child? You can’t, a child is priceless. Once they are gone all the money in the world will not bring them back, been there and done that, so such a tiny amount for each child seems to be such a trivial argument. Then there’s the side “ the younger children wouldn’t be able to free themselves in case of an emergency” such as a fire. That’s why they need a bus driver’s aid for these really small children as they did have for the handicapped. I would much rather have my child, if I had any that young now, to be strapped in, in case a bus flipped or got T-boned by a semi or a fully loaded, flying low, dump truck! Children come before dollars and inconvenience.

Posted by carl on 05/29/08 - 7:28 am • Report Abuse

I firmly believe seatbelts saved those kids. Alabama needs to make seatbelts in buses mandatory. Unfortunately the only way that would happen in this state is if they fire more teachers.

Posted by atbman on 05/29/08 - 6:43 am • Report Abuse