News

Bus Hits Tree in N.C., 18 Students Hospitalized

Teddy Kulmala

01/27/2012

Jan. 26--ST. PAULS -- A school bus struck a tree head on this afternoon, and as many as 18 students were transported to the hospital after the bus driver apparently blacked out after leaving St. Pauls High School, according to the state Highway Patrol.

According to Dr. Danny Steadman, assistant superintendent for auxiliary services for the Public Schools of Robeson County, none of the students appeared to be seriously injured.

"There didn't appear to be any blood, there didn't appear to be any broken bones," he said. "Some of them were complaining for neck injuries, so they always put them on the stretchers and take them just to make sure, so that's mainly what I think they're being taken for... ."

According to Trooper Jerome McMillian, there were between 30 and 35 students on board the bus when it veered to the right off of U.S. 301 and struck a tree head on about 3:30 p.m. About 18 students were transported by ambulance to Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton, he said.

"It appears that the driver blacked out," McMillian said. "His statement to me was that he passed out; he doesn't know what happened. Some of the students indicated that, when he crossed over the bridge, he just lost control, started jerking. His eyes rolled back into his head. At that point, once he crossed over the bridge, he ran off the road to the right and hit a tree head on."

The bus was traveling an estimated 45 mph, he said.

According to Raymond Cummings, transportation director for the Public Schools of Robeson County, all the students on board the bus were from St. Pauls High School, which is located about a mile from where the wreck took place.

The students who did not report injuries were picked up by a second bus that finished the route, he said.

"Everybody has cell phones. Kids have been calling their parents," Cummings said. "They've been coming, but we don't release them until the principal -- some she's released, but for the most part we're taking a bus, finishing the route for those who are OK, and transporting the ones that said they need to go to the hospital."

According to Dr. Johnny Hunt, superintendent of the Public Schools of Robeson County, the bus driver, Timothy Walton, was in his first year of driving for the school district.

"He doesn't have, as far as we know, any health concerns. He just started driving the bus this year," Hunt said.

The bus, which Hunt said "appears" to be totaled, was towed to the school district's bus yard.

A student who was on the bus told The Robesonian what happened when the students thought something was wrong.

"We thought he was pulling over and he wasn't stopping," she said. "Everybody's like, 'Oh my god, he passed out!' And then that's when we all crashed.

"One of the girls ran up there and checked on him, she's like, 'Call the ambulance, call the ambulance,'" the student said. "We were all scared. We were trying to call the ambulance and just get off the bus."