6-year-old injured in Eastern Ky. school bus crash faces ‘long recovery,’ mom says
A child injured in a school bus crash in Letcher County Friday afternoon underwent surgery at the University of Kentucky and has a “long recovery” ahead, his mother said.
April Martin told the Herald-Leader Saturday night her 6-year-old son Gunner “had a severe cut across his cheek bone all the way to his ear.”
Gunner was one of 22 students and a bus driver hurt in a collision between the bus and a tractor-trailer coal truck on Ky. 932 in the Eolia community just before 1:30 p.m.
“Ambulance crews transported twenty-two students and one adult to Whitesburg A.R.H. for injuries sustained in the collision,” Kentucky State Police said in a news release Saturday. “Two students were later transferred to other hospitals to be treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.”
Gunner had a significant amount of nerve damage to his face, and his ear canal had to be reconstructed, Martin said.
“He was sent to UK to have it checked and fixed by their specialists,” she said. “He had surgery early Saturday morning to make these repairs. He has a long recovery ahead and possibly more surgeries.”
She said Gunner is being monitored in a children’s trauma unit for a couple nights and should be released Sunday or Monday.
Arlie Boggs Elementary School shared an update on the first-grader with the permission of his mother on the school’s Facebook page Saturday afternoon.
Gunner “suffered one of the more serious injuries” and required a four-hour surgery, the school said.
The school said he “had deep lacerations on his face,” and the surgery overnight was needed “to repair muscle, nerves and the ear canal.
“He is in a room now and will have tough recovery ahead of him,” the statement from Arlie Boggs Elementary said.
“Gunner is a strong little boy and will do well,” the post stated. “Mom told me that he is sore and a little cranky, but hey he has earned the right to be cranky today. Our Wildcat family wants Gunner and his family to know we love him and are here for them. Please continue to pray for him and his family.”
The school district had dismissed classes early Friday because of high winds and a power outage at a middle school.
State police said the bus was carrying students from Arlie Boggs Elementary eastbound when it met the westbound coal truck.
As the driver of the truck “approached a curve, he crossed the center line to navigate the curve on the narrow roadway, making contact with the school bus,” state police said in the release. “The collision caused the bus to leave its lane of travel and overturn down an embankment coming to rest on its side.”
The Whitesburg Mountain Eagle reported that the collision was on a narrow two-lane road and resulted in the bus going 20 to 30 feet down a hill and landing ”on its side, partly in the shallow water of the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River.”
