SCHOOL BUS CRASH REPORTS 2007

Le Roy Schools Vehicle With 14 Aboard Hits Truck
May 31, 2007

Three members of the LeRoy school community were seriously injured Wednesday morning when a school bus they were in rear-ended a dump truck in Batavia, Genesee County.

Trooper Rebecca Gibbons said the dump truck and a school bus from the LeRoy Central School District collided just before 10:30 a.m. on Route 33 near Wortendyke Road in the town of Batavia.

Both vehicles were reportedly westbound on the roadway west of the city of Batavia. The bus rear-ended the dump truck, which was stopped on Route 33 to turn left onto Wortendyke Road, she said.

Gibbons said State Police troopers were still investigating the accident and charges were pending.

LeRoy High School Principal Charles Herring said 10 high school students, three staff members and a bus driver were on the bus, traveling to a veterinarian's office in Corfu and a farm in Genesee County. He said district officials notified the parents of all students on the bus.

Involved students were on a class-related trip for a life skills class, Herring said. Life skills is a course designed for students who are more successful in smaller classes with hands-on activities, said Michael Glover, superintendent for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services for Genesee, Livingston, Steuben and Wyoming counties. Glover filled in for LeRoy

Superintendent David DeLoria, who was out of town Wednesday.

Bus driver John Peck, 69, and two passengers on the bus — student Jeremy Perry, 18, and teacher Sue Lawrence, 31 — were transported to Erie County Medical Center by Mercy Flight, Gibbons said.

About 10 others from the bus were taken by ambulance to United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia for treatment of minor injuries.

It took between 35 and 40 minutes to remove Peck from the wreckage, said Gregory Gill, general manager at Mercy Flight Western New York.

Peck suffered multiple injuries, Perry complained of back injuries and Lawrence injured her hip, Gill said.

Gibbons said Peck's injuries were considered the most severe. The dump truck driver, 44-year-old Robert Tompkins, was not injured, she said.

Perry was listed in fair condition at the hospital, while Peck and Lawrence were in the emergency room Wednesday, according to a hospital spokesman.

Glover said he received word just before 2 p.m. that eight of the 10 students who were treated at the Batavia hospital had been released.

"That's a good thing," he said.

A stretch of both roads remained closed for about 3½ hours Wednesday while state police investigated the collision, troopers said. Gibbons noted that officials from the state Department of Transportation were inspecting the bus.

Herring said he informed students at the high school of the accident and made counselors available "to help students to get through the rest of the day."

LeRoy seventh-grader Elizabeth McCullough knows Jeremy Perry from school and said she was worried for her friend.

"Jeremy is really funny and he gets mad really easily, but he's nice and he's a good kid," she said.

Elizabeth and her two friends — Amanda Wilson and Marissa Norton, also seventh-grade students — heard about the accident during class when Herring made the announcement.

"The principal said that Jeremy Perry was badly injured and so was a teacher," said Amanda, who added that her own teacher looked as if she might cry. "I was tearing up because I was worried about my friends."

Just before students were dismissed for the day, Herring told students and staff members that everyone taken to the Batavia hospital "was OK," Amanda said.

Marissa, who regularly eats lunch with two of the injured students, said she felt better after that announcement, "but I'm still worried about them," she said.

"LeRoy is a small community and a caring community" Glover said. "This is a very difficult situation. We could use everyone's thoughts and prayers."

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