GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Several students and a bus driver were taken to the hospital when two charter buses headed to Carowinds for a class trip collided Friday morning. That driver was also cited by police.
It happened around 9:40 a.m. on the ramp from Interstate 85 North to Ozark Avenue, Gaston County Emergency Services said.
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According to a spokesperson for the Pickens County school district, seven students who reported soreness and a bus driver all went to the hospital to be checked out by EMS.
Gastonia police confirmed to Channel 9 that about 85 middle school students and 21 chaperones were on the two buses and were headed to Carowinds for a class trip. Channel 9 has learned Carowinds was hosting its Festival of Music on Friday, and a parent said the students are all in the sixth grade band.
Channel 9′s Dave Faherty learned one of the buses rear-ended the other bus, sending it off the interstate and into the tree-line along the shoulder. Police said it was the driver of that bus who was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police later said the bus in front had braked due to heavy traffic on I-85, and the other driver couldn’t stop in time. That second driver was cited for failure to reduce speed, investigators said.
‘Shaken up’
Parent Kitta Milam said the students who were on board attend Richard H. Gettys Middle School in Easley, South Carolina. The town is near Greenville and is about an hour and a half drive from where the crash happened.
“My son did tell me one of his friends got a bloody nose and the bus driver couldn’t move. He was shaken up, obviously. I mean he’s 12, it’s his first time in a crash so that’s really all I got from them,” Milam said. “We’re still waiting to hear if we need to drive out there to get them or meet them somewhere of if they’ll have another bus bringing them home.”
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Band Director Matt Herndon said his first thoughts were for the dozens of middle school students on board.
“I was on the bus. I was actually in the front seat,” he told Faherty.
“It all happened so fast but also so slow at the same time,” he said. “And then I jumped in and started helping my kids. Are you guys OK?”
At the scene, dozens of police, firefighters, and EMS were on scene working to get children off the buses. The bus that ran off the road had heavy damage to its front end.
Police said the doors to the bus that ran into the woods weren’t usable, so they used ladders to get passengers out of the bus’s emergency exit.
“Place where you board and off load for the charter bus was compromised,” Gastonia Police Department Sgt. Joe Bain said. “So Gastonia Fire used the emergency exits to start off loading those kids with the use of some ladders.”
‘So scared that you can’t breathe’
Dozens of kids were walking in a line down the shoulder of the highway away from the crash, and Channel 9 learned they were walking to Fire Station No. 6, which is not far from the interstate. That’s where Faherty spoke with a chaperone who was in the back of the bus.
“In the back we were definitely thrown,” Lori Small said. “A few people got hit. They hit the seat in front of them.”
Aubrey Painter was a student on the one of the buses when they crashed.
“You’re so scared that you can’t breathe. You’re like, ‘what happened, what just happened?’ You’re not focusing on yourself or anyone else. You’re just focusing on if anyone is OK,” Painter said.
“When I was at the hospital, I thought ‘I’m never going on a charter bus again.’ That was my immediate thought. ‘I’m never going on a bus again. Like a charter bus,’” she said.
Her dad was with her on that bus. He said he knew he had to keep his cool.
“I need to stay calm and everything so I don’t freaking make the kids go crazy or anything else,” Michael Medlin said. ”I had to stay calm to basically keep everybody else calm.”
Small told Faherty she was thankful for the first responders. They guided the students and chaperones to the Bradley Community Center, where the City of Gastonia treated them to pizza lunches. A local business also brought water for everyone on the buses.
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“You’re always concerned about that kind of thing and we thought, ‘hell, this could have easily been our kids or grandkids, so we thought we would come up and help,’” said John Patterson with Boarder State Electric.
The spokesperson for the school district said they sent buses to pick everyone up and take them home to Easley. The Richard H. Gettys Middle principal was on one of the local buses, he said.
The School District of Pickens County shared a statement about the crash, saying they were “relieved there were no serious injuries.”
“On Friday, 4/26/24, two charter buses with SDPC students en route to North Carolina were involved in an accident near Gastonia,” the statement reads. “The accident involved one charter bus colliding with the second bus. The accident occurred at approximately 9:45 a.m. There were 85 students and 21 chaperones on the buses. 106 total riders. Emergency medical teams arrived and assisted individuals as needed. After assessing all the individuals, five students and one driver were transported for further medical attention or to be assessed for minor injuries. We have notified parents and guardians of students involved in the accident.
“We are relieved that there were no serious injuries and we are thankful for the prompt response of the Gaston County Emergency Services and law enforcement.”
Channel 9 could see the buses are owned by A&W Travels.
One lane on I-85 North remained closed for several hours.
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