CAR AND BUS COLLISION IN OREGON CITY, OREGON SENDS THE CAR DRIVER TO THE HOSPITAL. 2 OF THE 33 CHILDREN ON BOARD SUFFERED MINOR INJURIES
February 6, 2015
OREGON
CITY, Ore. (KOIN 6) — A school bus filled with elementary students collided
with a car in Oregon City Friday morning, sending the car’s driver to the
hospital and leaving a number of kids with bumps and bruises.
Clackamas
County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Kruse said the bus was stopped at a light at Country
Village Drive and was about to turn onto Maplelane Road when a silver car on
Maplelane hit the bus while trying to change lanes.
The car was
significantly damaged. The driver was the only person in the car.
The school
bus was carrying Redland Elementary students — 33 children in all, also less
than originally estimated — at the time of the crash, according to Kruse.
No one on
the bus required immediate transport, though several were treated on scene as emergency
workers attempted to reunite the children with their parents.
Ryan
Watkins said he was on his way to pick up his wife and run some errands when he
saw there was a crash between a car and a school bus.
His wife
texted him their daughter, Emily, was on the bus. He got out of his car and ran
to the bus.
First
responders, he said, “did a good job of getting there and taking care of
everything.”
Firefighters
first checked the driver of the car and the kids on the bus. The car’s driver
was taken to the hospital by ambulance, and since the kids weren’t seriously
hurt they were allowed to stay on the bus.
Two
children were eventually taken to the hospital with reportedly minor injuries,
but the main reason for their transport had more to do with a difficulty in
locating their parents, according to CCSO.
Parents had
to show IDs and confirm their child’s name in order to get them off the bus,
and the firefighters escorted each child off the bus and to their parents.
Too many
collisions between school buses; can the drivers see the tall, huge, yellow-colored buses? Perhaps it is time to
change the color of the buses and turn them bright red. We believe it will help reduce the crushes,
as some drivers have become desensitized to the yellow color of the school
buses.