Tennessee school bus crash kills five children, injures more than two dozen
- 7 years ago
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE — A Tennessee community is reeling from an accident that claimed the lives of multiple children just days before Thanksgiving.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that on Monday afternoon, 37 children were on board a school bus as it traveled along Talley Road in Chattanooga. The students, from Woodmore Elementary School, ranged in age from kindergarten to fifth grade.
According to Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher, early reports indicate that the bus may have hit a utility pole before flipping on its side and crashing into a tree.
Children were seen escaping the wreck to safety by climbing out of the vehicle’s roof hatch, though many more were trapped inside.
Rescuers spent at least two hours extracting everyone from the bus. Five students died at the scene, and more than two dozen others injured.
Police arrested the 24-year-old bus driver and are charging him with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving, according to the Tennessean.
The crash comes just days after another school bus flipped over on Interstate 65 in Nashville and injured nearly two dozen students.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that on Monday afternoon, 37 children were on board a school bus as it traveled along Talley Road in Chattanooga. The students, from Woodmore Elementary School, ranged in age from kindergarten to fifth grade.
According to Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher, early reports indicate that the bus may have hit a utility pole before flipping on its side and crashing into a tree.
Children were seen escaping the wreck to safety by climbing out of the vehicle’s roof hatch, though many more were trapped inside.
Rescuers spent at least two hours extracting everyone from the bus. Five students died at the scene, and more than two dozen others injured.
Police arrested the 24-year-old bus driver and are charging him with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving, according to the Tennessean.
The crash comes just days after another school bus flipped over on Interstate 65 in Nashville and injured nearly two dozen students.