HODGES — A school bus with 35 people in it ran off a highway and down an embankment, sending more than 20 people to hospitals Friday afternoon, according to officials.
Derek Kinney, Greenwood County director of Emergency Management Services, said three people were in critical condition and three helicopters responded to the wreck, which involved a Westwood Elementary School bus.
The wreck happened at about 1:20 p.m. on U.S. Highway 25 near Nation Road, about 4 miles south of Ware Shoals, according to a release from the state Highway Patrol. The bus, a 2015 Thomas Built, was driven by Donna Mundy Link, 56, of Abbeville.
Link was injured and taken to Self Regional Medical Center. There were 29 students and five chaperones on board. The bus was heading south on U.S. 25, returning to Westwood Elementary School when it went off the right side of the roadway, hit a utility pole and a fence, and went down an embankment, the release said.
At the scene of the wreck, a damaged utility pole stood before a flattened fence, the trail of damage leading down the embankment and into the ditch the school bus landed in. Inside the bus’ open rear door, a loose sneaker had slid under a row of seats and was left behind after students and others were removed from the bus.
The release said 13 people were taken to hospitals for medical treatment from the scene of the wreck. Highway Patrol is investigating.
Self Regional Medical Center received 16 children and two adults for treatment, Self Regional spokesman Mark Hyatt said. As of 9 p.m. Friday, all but two had been treated and released. A Greenville Health System representative said one patient was flown to the Children’s Hospital, while two others were flown to Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Abbeville County Superintendent Betty Jo Hall said the vehicle was one of three buses from Westwood and had been on a field trip. She did not know where they had been.
Hall said the other two buses had already returned to the school and the parents of all the children had been contacted.
“Parents have been notified at least twice at this point and we are sending a bus to pick up the children who were not transported,” she said. “I’m trying to stay calm and make sure we get the children back safely.”
At the Army National Guard armory at 6918 U.S. 25, first responders and school district officials were rushing to set up a “reunification center,” as one official called it. Students who weren’t taken to the hospital were brought inside the armory, where parents could come and reunite with them.
“We take the kids in and we put them somewhere secure. We have law enforcement here as well as mental health support and teachers, that kind of thing,” McKinney said. “They’re all clearly shaken.”
At about 5 p.m. McKinney said he was still at the armory and said there was only one child left waiting to be picked up. He said it took a lot of agencies working together to respond to this wreck, but he said state, county and local officials all worked together well.
Outside, deputies, firefighters and EMS staff from multiple counties stood by, all working together to share information and get a better understanding of what happened. Worried parents parked their cars in the driveway and rushed inside for their children.
Christopher Tackett said his 9-year-old son, Gideon, was on one of the two buses that made it safely back.
He described the initial call about the wreck as causing “total panic,” but added that it was “a very big relief” when he learned his son was on a bus that was safe.
“He (Gideon) doesn’t sound like he’s fazed, but I don’t think he understands the severity of it,” Tackett said.
Staff writers Patricia Edwards, Adam Benson and Aleks Gilbert contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Damian Dominguez at 864-634-7548 or follow on twitter @IJDDOMINGUEZ.
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