FRANKTON — None of the 53 students were reportedly kept in area hospitals overnight after being involved with the crash Wednesday between a Frankton Jr.-Sr. High School bus and a car.
Their bus driver, David Huffman, and two people in the other car were also treated for injuries but released following the collision at rural intersection about three miles south of the school.
The accident, reported at about 9:25 a.m., spun a Chevrolet Corsica driven by Kiesha Lamontagne, 17, a student at Frankton, into a cornfield and tipped over the bus onto its left side.
“We had two more stops to go,” said Cayla McDonald, 16, who was sitting on the right side of the bus.
“I remember one minute sitting next to my friends and the next minute sitting on top of them.”
The crash occurred as students headed to Frankton following a two-hour delay due to icy road conditions.
At the scene, Madison County Sheriff Ron Richardson said investigators were trying to determine if the car slid as it approached a stop sign at the intersection. The bus had the right of way, he said.
For the few brief minutes after the bus toppled over, students helped one another find exits.
“It was hectic. People were crying, screaming, ‘Let me out. Let me out,’” said Manuel Tapia, a 16-year-old sophomore.
Along with more than 30 people from the Frankton bus crash, the emergency room at Community also took nine students from a bus slide-off at East Side Middle School in Anderson.
Of the 41 people involved in the two crashes and taken to Community Hospital, all were treated and released by Wednesday evening, hospital spokeswoman Katie Harrison-Troxell said.
The injured were sent to each of Madison County’s three hospitals. The most serious injuries were broken bones in two students and another who underwent surgery for deep lacerations to his face.
One 14-year-old girl was having a broken bone set Wednesday evening but others had reportedly been sent home or went with their parents.
St. Vincent Mercy Hospital in Elwood cared for 11 students who all had minor “bumps and lumps,” hospital administrator Deborah Rasper said.
Saint John’s Medical Center in Anderson treated 12 students, one with a broken arm, according to spokesman Randy Titus.
Rob Amick, fire chief at Frankton, said his team was first on the scene. County dispatch pulled in other ambulances from Alexandria and Richland to Township transport the students to the hospital.
“A lot of people did an amazing job,” he said.
Amick laughed and said it was the first time in Community Hospital’s history that a bus pulled up the ER ramp, referring to the second bus that went to the scene to keep students out of the weather.
Local Education
UPDATE: School bus flips en route to Frankton
Students taken to all county hospitals
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