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Dozen students injured in Dinwiddie County bus accident
DINWIDDIE, Dec 12, 2009 (The Progress-Index - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
At least a dozen students were injured Friday afternoon when a county school bus overturned on Boisseau Road. County officials described the injuries as mostly cuts, bruises, strains and sprains.
The call originally came in around 2:56 p.m. to the Dinwiddie County Emergency Communications Center. Fire Marshal Tony Williams said the call originated from a teacher's cell phone.
State Police Sgt. Tom Molnar said that according to the initial investigation the bus had run off the road to the right into a ditch, then over-corrected and ran off the road to the left where it flipped around and ended up on the right side of the road on its side against a tree.
The entire accident occurred less than a quarter of a mile from Dinwiddie High School.
Acting Dinwiddie Schools Superintendent David Clark said that there were middle, junior high and high school students on the bus.
"Apparently a teacher saw what happened and called," Williams said. He said that by the time Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel arrived on scene, everyone that had been on the bus was off. "It was what you could describe as walking wounded."
Molnar said that driver of the bus, 35-year-old Rae Cole of Sutherland, has been charged with reckless driving. Williams said that Cole had assisted students with getting out of the bus and was transported by a personal vehicle to a local hospital.
Initially, six students were transported from the scene to Southside Regional Medical Center. The students were transported in pairs by three ambulances, two from Dinwiddie County and one from Colonial Heights.
Clark said that the students were checked out a second time at Dinwiddie High School, transported to the school by a second bus from the scene of the accident. After a third evaluation, another half-dozen students were transported before 5 p.m.
Clark said five of those students were taken to John Randolph Medical Center and one was taken to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond.
Williams said the student taken to VCU Medical Center was taken there to be evaluated for possible internal bleeding after complaining of abdominal pain.
Shortly after 5 p.m., the bus was being towed past the high school away from the accident scene as two more ambulances -- from Ettrick-Matoaca Volunteer Rescue Squad -- were going to Dinwiddie High School.
Aid was also provided by the Petersburg Fire Department.
"The students handled themselves very well," Williams said. "They remained calm throughout the whole situation."
He attributed the increase in the number of students taken to area hospitals to the initial shock of the incident. "They had that shock, and then later they noticed a pain that they had," Williams said.
Clark said that parents of all students who had been on the bus were notified of the situation immediately.
Several parents arrived to pick-up their children while others were being taken by ambulance. Many of the students leaving could be seen holding cold compresses to arms and hands.
Molnar said that the accident is still under investigation to determine exactly what caused Cole to veer off the road to the right.
- F.M. Wiggins may be reached at 732-3456, ext. 3254 or fwiggins@progress-index.com.
To see more of The Progress-Index or to subscribe to the newspaper, visit
http://www.progress-index.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Progress-Index,
Petersburg, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For
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