Students, parents react to morning bus crash
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — EMS crews rushed 25 students and two bus drivers to area hospitals on Friday morning.
All injuries were non-life threatening. The accident caused quite a scare, especially for parents.
Emergency crews surrounded the buses. One had cracks on the windshield that spread across the entire window. It’s all evidence that something terrible happened.
Freshman Kristian Thomas says the crash seemed to come out of nowhere.
“I’m listening to music on the bus and the next thing you know, I flew forward and busted my lip and stuff, chest pains and stuff like that,” he said.
Immediately after the crash, police, fire and EMS vehicles lit up the road with their flashing lights as they crowded the scene. Also on the scene was Tamika Thomas, Kristian’s mom. She rushed there after he called her to let her know about the accident.
“Very terrifying. Especially when you’re not with your child and something like this happens,” she said.
With little information to go on, Tamika got back in her car. She knew her son was rushed to a hospital, but wasn’t sure which one. She went to Community Hospital North, Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent and then downtown to IU Health Methodist Hospital looking for her son. 24-Hour News 8 caught up with her at the children’s hospital.
“Just hospital chasing. At the scene, the police officer said they were taking them all to Community. Once the totals kept going up, they’ve been taking them to all the other hospitals,” she said.
At Methodist is where she finally located Kristian. He was noticeably battered with a busted lip, but was treated and released early in the afternoon with his mom by his side. Although it was a terrifying start to the day, in the end it was quite the opposite.
“In the end, I’m glad everybody is okay and that my child is okay. Because things could’ve been different,” Tamika said.
After being discharged from the hospital, Kristian said he was going back to school because it’s finals week.
Methodist saw three people. They were all treated and released.