SCHOOL BUS CRASH
REPORTS 1999
Bus
Hits Semitrailer in South Texas
Friday, December 10, 1999.
EST COTULLA, Texas
A semi trailer
slammed into the back of a school bus on a highway in South Texas Friday,
injuring 14 people.
Thirteen
passengers, almost all of them students from the Cotulla Independent
School District, and the bus driver were injured in the wreck, said Tom
Vinger, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
"This was a
special-needs school bus. Some (students) needed wheelchair
assistance," Vinger said.
The uninjured
trucker was arrested on a reckless driving charge. Vinger said the
sheriff's department had received several calls about a truck being
operated recklessly. "He was just driving like a madman," he
said.
The 18-wheeler
slammed into the back of the bus, which was in a southbound lane of
Interstate 35, Vinger said. The bus rolled one way and the 18-wheeler
rolled into the northbound lanes, closing I-35 in both directions, he
said. "The bus ended up on its top. The kids were trapped, and DPS
and other law enforcement officials had to extricate them from the
bus," he said
©Published in The Associated
Press Friday, Dec. 10, 1999; 8:54 p.m. EST COTULLA, Texas
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