14 DAY TRIAL // A school bus capsized near Kansas City, Missouri on Wednesday, leaving 20 sixth-grade girls with minor injuries.
Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Howard Dickinson told the Daily Mail that only female students were on the bus, as the boys were being transported with a separate vehicle.
The students were on their way to Pembroke Hills School. The Wichita Eagle reported that the driver lost control of the bus on a ramp as he was traveling southbound on Kansas 7.
The wheels on the left side started sliding off the road so driver Elmer Scott Jr. tried to veer the vehicle in the other direction.
At that point, he overturned the bus which slid down the embankment. By 3:50 p.m., crews were able to get it in an upright position with a tow truck.
66-year-old Scott Jr. of Kansas City was transported to a hospital with minor wounds.
“Good news so far. We received four patients, all with minor bumps and bruises, and it looks like they’re doing OK at this point. Nothing major,” describes Dr. Denise Dowd of the Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
“I’m not hearing anything about really critically injuries. [...] I’m glad I got the word before I got the view because it’s grisly,” parent Steve Butler confirms.
36 people were on board and 20 were checked out at local hospitals. Some only suffered cuts and bruises while other passengers reported neck injuries.
“The hardest thing at first was getting the girls calmed down and squared away,” Dickinson describes.
The accident wreaked havoc among the students. Passenger Lucia Wolfe described the whole class struggling to leave the bus.
“It was really scary. It was really bumpy and we kind of flipped over and everyone started screaming and everyone fell on top of each other. … I didn’t fall on anybody. I tipped onto the window,” she recalls.