SCHOOL BUS CRASH
REPORTS 2007
Mississauga boy critically hurt in
school bus accident on Hwy. 410
April 12, 2007
Grade 4 students were on field trip.
A 10-year-old Mississauga boy is fighting
for his life after suffering apparent head trauma when the school bus
transporting his Grade 4 class on a field trip sideswiped a flat-bed
truck on a busy highway north of Toronto.
The bus, carrying 27 students from St.
Alfred Separate School, hurtled into the muddy ditch separating the
northbound and southbound lanes of Highway 410 in Brampton. It came to a
stop just before veering into oncoming traffic.
While the bus remained upright, the
children aboard were badly jostled -- with one boy describing his friend
being ejected from his seat and flying over his head.
"I saw people screaming. I saw a guy who
fell out of his seat and hit the floor of the bus," 10-year-old Roland
Ruzsinszki told Global News. "When the bus stopped, people were so
scared. That's when people were crying like crazy."
In total, 17 students were hurt -- one
critically and two seriously -- while the rest suffered cuts, bruises,
scrapes, sprains and broken bones in the accident that sent parents
scrambling to make sure their children were safe and is sure to renew
debate about whether school buses should be equipped with seatbelts.
The 10-year-old boy, who at first had no
vital signs, was airlifted to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children where
he remained in critical condition last night. Another girl was also
hospitalized at Sick Kids with non-life-threatening injuries.
As he was wheeled out of the facility by
his older sister several hours later with a badly sprained foot,
nine-year-old Alexander Markovski told of bodies flying as the
out-of-control bus lurched through the mud and grass.
"Last thing I remember, was that the bus,
it crashed. ... And my friend flipped over my head and I kind of crashed
on the floor," he told the National Post. "It was scary, really scary."
Ontario Provincial Police are
investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred at 9:28 a.m. and
closed the northbound lanes of Highway 410 for several hours.
Const. Linda Dean could not say how the
school bus and the flat-bed truck, hauling a load of wood, came into
contact.
But truck driver Pat Pringle, who was
unhurt in the accident, told Global News that it was the bus that lost
control.
"I seen the bus coming up in my mirror
and the next thing I know, I feel this awful jolt in the back of my
trailer," he said. "I could see the kids in my mirror of my truck just
being thrown everywhere inside the bus. I felt sick to my stomach."
The OPP is calling for witnesses to the
crash to come forward.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007
Allison Hanes and Nicole Girardin
The National Post
back to
Crash Reports 2007
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