7 students taken to hospital after HISD bus crash
KHOU Staff, KHOU.com 12:32 p.m. CST March 11, 2016
(Photo: KHOU 11)
HOUSTON – Seven students were loaded into ambulances following a school bus crash in southeast Houston, the Houston Independent School District confirms.
The Houston Fire Department says the students were taken to the hospital as a precaution, and there were no reports of serious injuries.
The crash happened early Friday on Park Place Boulevard near Old Galveston Road, not far from the 610 Loop and Highway 225. Views from Air 11 showed a wrecked white Chevrolet sedan nearby. It appeared the car struck the bus from behind.
As of 8 a.m. several ambulances were on the scene along with Houston Police.
HISD officials say the bus was taking students to Lamar High School and the Challenge Early College High School on Houston's west side at the time of the crash.
Investigators said the driver who ran into the HISD bus says the bus came to a weird stop right at the railroad tracks on Park Place, and that's when he ran into the back of the bus.
Alexander Jimenez was driving the white car that hit the bus from behind.
"I really wasn't worried about the car or my health, I was just worried about the kids," Jimenez said.
Car that hit school bus (Photo: Air 11 / KHOU 11)
Jimenez says the school bus was sticking out in the intersection where he was trying to turn.
“Usually they stop like right here, but he stopped like farther back, and that's when I caught the edge of the corner of the bus," he said.
The damage to the school bus was minor, but it still had to be towed from the scene.
Jimenez's car was in much worse shape, but he says police told him the accident wasn't his fault.
"They said they've seen the cameras and it's not my fault, because I was doing my job by turning."
His fault or not, Jimenez said he did get a ticket for driving without a license or insurance.