Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

2 hurt as minivan plows into school bus

Four Shady Hills Elementary pupils are examined but none seriously injured. The van driver and a child are hurt.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published May 20, 2005

SHADY HILLS - Denise Watson was driving behind a school bus Thursday afternoon when a minivan suddenly appeared from a cross street.

The minivan's driver, Watson said, "never stopped. She never put on her brakes."

The bus was loaded with about 40 students headed home from Shady Hills Elementary. The minivan ran into the bus just behind the front tire. The crash sent four students to local hospitals to be checked for minor injuries.

The impact destroyed the minivan's front end. Inside was a woman, a 14-year-old girl and a 3-year-old, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

None of the children on the bus were seriously hurt. But they watched as rescue workers loaded the minivan's driver and the 3-year-old into ambulances. Helicopters flew them to Bayfront Medical Center. Both were conscious, the Highway Patrol said. The 14-year-old girl was unhurt.

The students waited in the bus as moms and dads gathered behind crime scene tape to collect them. Some parents had gotten calls from school officials. Others had heard about the crash from friends and neighbors. They spotted their children and waved. Some shouted encouragement.

"You're going to have to be patient with me," sheriff's Cpl. John Collier told them. "Because we're going to do them one at a time so no kids get lost or confused."

As someone called each child's name, a parent or relative stepped up with identification.

"You can see them, but you can't talk to them," said waiting mother Jamee Sapp. "It's a little nerve-racking"

She was waiting to get her hands on Korey, her 10-year-old son.

"He's real shook up," she said. "I can just tell by the look on his face."

Earlier, she had been wondering why he was late from school when a neighbor knocked on the door with news of the crash. Her heart did a flip, she said. "It hasn't stopped."

Eight-year-old Conley Mamolou said that as he rode home on the bus he was looking forward to seeing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith later Thursday.

"And then the car came out and hit us," he said. He bumped his head on the seat, he said, but was not hurt. But "an old lady and a baby (in the minivan) got very hurt."

The kids on the bus were mostly calm, Conley said. "Two people were crying, but not that much."

The Highway Patrol did not release the names of those in the minivan.

The 3:07 p.m. crash happened at Nelson and Lancer roads. The minivan, heading north on Nelson, apparently ran a stop sign obscured by two Verizon vans parked along the side of the road. A citation for the minivan's driver is pending further investigation, the patrol said.

[Last modified May 20, 2005, 01:06:18]