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School bus and big rig collide on West Main Street Road

By Billie Owens

A school bus and a tractor-trailer have collided at 3299 W. Main St. Road. The school bus is on its side. Injuries unknown. There is one student and the bus driver and they are both out of the vehicle. East Pembroke Fire Department is responding along with Mercy EMS. Oakfield and Darien are asked to stand by in quarters along with Town of Batavia firefighters. Mercy Flight is put on standby. This is west of Wortendyke Road.

UPDATE 12:16 p.m.: Wortendyke at Route 5 is closed, along with Route 5 at Hopkins Road. Sheriff's deputies are rerouting traffic until fire police can respond. Mercy Flight will not be needed. The Pembroke school district has already called a tow truck for the bus.

UPDATE 12:18 p.m.: The semi's driver is also out of his vehicle. Response from Oakfield, Darien and Town of Batavia is cancelled.

UPDATE 12:22 p.m.: The two adults will be sign-offs. There is one pediatric patient to be transported to the hospital.

UPDATE 12:29: "Until we get the bus on its wheels, the road's going to be closed for awhile." Meanwhile, truck traffic is backing up. A State Trooper is responding to the scene.

UPDATE 12:43 p.m.: The child is being taken to UMMC.

UPDATE 1:35 p.m.: The roadway is reopened. All units clear.

Laura Russell Ricci

Praying for the child involved and the parents, not knowing what the extent or the reasons for the transport to the hospital for this child...hope all will be well.

Sep 17, 2012, 12:33pm Permalink
John Stone

I was the first medical provider on-scene, and will withhold all names of the people involved until the authorities release them.
The bus was stopped on Rt. 5 to pick up another child when it was apparently hit from behind by a tractor-trailer. The bus was thrown off the north side of the road, and was laying on it's passenger side. There was only one child on the bus at the time of the incident.
The transporting of the child would be precautionary, I believe, as my assessment of him didn't reveal any blatant injuries. Obviously the child was quite scared,
My prayers will continue for all involved!

Sep 17, 2012, 12:58pm Permalink
John Stone

No prob, Kevin!
The drivers both seem to be OK, but adrenaline can mask some SERIOUS injuries. As a result, everyone should really be checked out. I imagine that soft-tissue injuries will declare themselves in a few hours, but that's kinda normal. However, in any MVA, it's encouraging to not have broken bones or bleeding!

Sep 17, 2012, 1:19pm Permalink
Thomas Schneider

I was driving in the opposite direction and passed the bus as it was stopped and saw the accident in the rear view mirror. I turned around and as I ran over to the bus the little boy was exiting. I'm just glad he and the driver seemed OK, hope everything checks out at the hospital, and that there weren't more kids on the bus. Your heart sinks when you witness something like this.

Sep 17, 2012, 1:54pm Permalink
Tim Miller

I remember the buses we used to ride at Pembroke. Probably darned near the same thing used everywhere. When I was in high school the replacement buses had much higher seat backs - prior to that the seat backs came to the shoulder blade area.

The kid not being hurt was probably due to those retched government regulations that required the seat back be high enough to protect kids from whiplash (or worse yet, smashing teeth on the bar that ran across the seat in front of them).

(FYI - I am not trolling with this comment, and would not have made it had anybody been injured.... I am simply pointing out that maybe, just maybe, safety regulations work.)

OH, and kudos to Thomas for being such a good guy and turning around to help!

Sep 17, 2012, 2:33pm Permalink

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