Multiple children taken to hospital after car crash flips school bus, NC cops say
Multiple children were hospitalized after a school bus flipped in North Carolina, officials said.
The Uwharrie Charter Academy bus was picking up elementary students on Tuesday morning when a Lexus going in the other direction veered into its lane, according to the N.C. State Highway Patrol.
The car swiped the bus, causing it to topple onto its side with two adults and seven children on board, Master Trooper Ned Moultrie told McClatchy News in a phone interview. He said the crash happened along N.C. Highway 109, south of Thomasville and roughly 65 miles northeast of Charlotte.
“The driver took off her seatbelt quickly, helped the monitor unbuckle the children,“ Sharon Castelli, superintendent of Uwharrie Charter Academy in Asheboro, told McClatchy News in a phone interview. “They exited out the back of the bus, which is what we’re all trained to do.”
While state officials say everyone on the bus went to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, Castelli said only three children and one adult were taken.
Troopers said the car’s driver, 22-year-old Charles Thompson, was seriously hurt in the crash. He is charged with having unsafe tires and traveling left of center. News outlets didn’t list an attorney for him.
The crash temporarily blocked part of N.C. Highway 109, which has since reopened to traffic, officials said.
The bus isn’t functional after the crash, the superintendent said.
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