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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