#BREAKING: A Crosby ISD school bus carrying students crashed in NE Harris County. LIVE COVERAGE: t.co/DT6qMGY6JR
A school bus carrying multiple children crashed on Friday afternoon in Crosby, Texas, about 25 miles northeast of Houston. There were 14 injuries reported in what the Crosby Independent School District called “a serious accident.”
The bus was carrying approximately 50 people, mostly kids, according to a KHOU TV report.
KTRK TV News reported that 11 students were injured along with the bus driver, and all have been transported to local hospitals reported to be either East Houston Regional Medical Center or Houston Methodist San Jacinto Hospital.
But the school district updated the number of injuries to 14 as of about 4:40 p.m. local time. The uninjured children aboard the bus, which was identified as Crosby ISD Bus Number 213, were transported to the Crosby ISD Operations Center at 14670 Farm to Market 2100 in Crosby, where school officials asked parents to pick them up.
Early reports said that no students have suffered life-threatening injuries, but that multiple kids remained trapped inside the bus as of about 4:30 p.m. local time. However, the school district later updated its Facebook page to say that no students were ever “trapped” inside the bus.
One 11-year-old passenger on the bus later said that it appeared as if the bus driver “wasn’t paying attention.”
.@imkevinquinn talked to this 11-year-old boy moments after a school bus crash in Harris County t.co/A1hMsUXovo
Early indications are that the bus swerved to avoid striking a stalled truck, according to a report by KTRK TV News. One witness, Damon Martin, told the station that the bus then ran off the road after making the sudden maneuver to avoid the truck.
“When I saw everything happen, I dropped everything and ran over there,” Martin told KTRK. “We took down the back door and we were using the back door to go inside and get everybody out to make sure they were safely put away from the scene. (The students) were pretty frantic. Some of them, it’s probably some of the worse stuff that has ever happened to them. It’s pretty scary getting in a school bus, not having seat belts, you know the bus turned over on its side, windows breaking. You know it’s in a ditch that is filled with water.”
Crosby School Superintendent Keith Moore confirmed that the bus was not equipped with seat belts — but did have a security camera that should be able to help investigators determine exactly why the school bus ended up off the road in it side.
Moore described the driver as “a wonderful lady” who was “beside herself” that her bus had crashed and flipped over. Moore added that the driver did not appear to be injured, but was “shaken up.”
Watch an interview with the superintendent in the following video.
Crosby ISD superintendent: Bus driver is a “wonderful lady” who is “beside herself that she was behind the wheel.” t.co/A1hMsUXovo
KPRC TV posted a witness’s cell phone video to its Facebook page.
A witness called in to KPRC describing a frightening scene from where the bus has flipped over.
“I (saw) the bus,” said the witness. “It was flipped. Kids were in and out of the bus. I stopped to render aid. There were so many people there. They said they got it. I went ahead and left. There were kids on the ground, bleeding, crying, screaming.”
To watch a live stream of efforts to remove the bus, via KPRC TV in Houston, click on this link. This story is developing and will be updated as soon as further information becomes available.