School Bus Crash Injures Marion Co. Students, Driver

A Marion County school bus veers off the road and into a ditch, leaving four children and the driver injured. The crash happened on Mt. Calvary Road just outside of Whitwell and that's where NewsChannel 9's Will Carr spoke with some of the first people on the scene. Will what did you find out?

Witnesses say this was a horrifying crash - it took firefighters thirty minutes to extricate the driver from the bus and now investigators are trying to figure out what happened.

Emergency crews respond to this school bus crash in front of Lindsey Sanders' home this afternoon.

"For like three seconds it sounded like a sonic boom and then a thunder, it rattled my windows and I looked out and little kids was jumping out the back," Sanders says.

All of the students attend Whitwell Elementary. The Director of School's, Mark Griffith, says after School Bus #3 crashed, ambulances rushed three students to Grandview Hospital and LifeForce took another to T.C. Thompson.

"Any injury or anything that could happen to a child is tragic," Griffith says.

Firefighters also had to extricate the driver, Roy Cartwright.

"He didn't look well, he didn't look like he was conscious," Sanders says.

LifeForce then flew Cartwright, who is also a Firefighter, to Erlanger. Tennessee Highway Patrol Sgt. John Harmon says the cause of the crash is still under investigation, but Sanders says she believes the School Bus was the only vehicle involved.

"We're also in the investigation we're going to look at the driver's medical files to look at if the driver was medically qualified," Harmon says.

"Has {Cartwright} ever had any driving issues, any complaints, anything like that before?" we ask the Director of Schools. "We might have had some initial complaints on a few situations but he did go through the medical procedure in January to get a clean bill of health," Griffith responds.

But Sanders, who has daughter, says this crash is an eye opener for any parent.

"Cause it's close to home, she's two and I don't want her to ride a bus no more," Sanders says.

And the Director of Schools tells us that Whitwell Elementary will have a normal school day tomorrow. He says they will have to double up on some bus routes though and says the students in the area of the crash will be picked up around 7:30 central time.