FEATURED IN NEWS
- Search for Survivors in Oklahoma Nearly Complete
- Police Chief: No Charges Likely in Virginia Parade Crash
- Empire State Building Lights Up for EMS Week
- Paramedic Fights Drug Abuse with Electronic Pill Bottle
- Columbus Fire Department Kicks Off EMS Week with Community Challenge
- NAEMT & NEMSMA Announce Strategic Partnership
- Many Dead, Including Children, After Tornado Strikes Oklahoma City Suburb
SAN ANGELO, Texas -- After the church bus full of children hit the white Dodge Caliber north of San Angelo, the bus veered into a cornfield.
Kayli Deremo, 8, said she was "scared ... I was thinking that we might flip over."
She was right.
The bus rolled onto its side with 41 passengers - 39 thirdand fifth-graders and two adults. The passengers and bus driver, Teresa Culbertson, 50, of San Angelo, sustained minor injuries, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Shawn Baxter said.
A DPS release states 18 children were transported to Shannon Medical Center, 15 by ambulance and three by private vehicle.
The driver of the Dodge, Cynthia Woodson, 24, a corrections o\x9Ecer in Eden, had been traveling south on Schwertner Road and pulled in front of the bus, which was traveling east on Farm-to-Market Road 2105.
Baxter said Woodson told law enforcement o\x9Ecers she didn't think the bus was going as fast as it was. She suÄered incapacitating injuries and was taken to Shannon, Baxter said.
After the crash, in the overturned Grape Creek Baptist Church bus, Kayli crawled out of the back emergency exit.
"I lost my shoe," she told Ashlyn Crimm, looking down at her single flipfl op. Crimm had been in a van traveling to the same church camp in Brownwood where Kayli and the bus were headed.
"It was terrible," Crimm said. She called for help when she noticed the crushed white Caliber just o¢ the road and then the bus, about 200 feet o¢ the road in a cornfield.
Soon after the crash, dozens of parents were at the crash site, intermingling with investigating law enforcement ocials. "My gut reaction was, 'I've got to get there,'" said Kayli's father, Jeremy Deremo . "I'm very relieved the injuries were as slight as they were."
Jeremy Deremo said the most common question the children were asking was when they would be able to go to the Brownwood church camp.
The school-type bus didn't have seat belts, Baxter said.
School buses typically are among the safest forms of automobile transportation, Baxter said, accounting for less than 1 percent of trac accidents.
"There is really no good crash," Baxter said, but anytime people can walk away with minor injuries "is a blessing," he said.
The crash is under investigation. Woodson was cited for failure to yield right of way at a stop sign, a DPS release states.
There is really no good crash, but any time people can walk away with minor injuries is a blessing."
Copyright © 2013 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
