3 remain hospitalized following Woodville ISD bus crash
Published 12:26 pm Friday, April 1, 2016
Three Woodville Independent School District track team members remain hospitalized with pelvic, back and neck injuries after the bus they were riding in left the roadway and flipped several times on Thursday.
At this time their injuries do not appear to be life threatening.
The bus, carrying 29 students and two coaches, was traveling eastbound on FM 1013 near Kirbyville when the right tires of the bus traveled off the roadway. In an attempt to steer the bus back on the road, the driver over-corrected sending the bus into a side-skid. The bus rolled over several times before coming to rest in an open field at about 3 p.m. March 31, according to a press release from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Of the two coaches on the bus, one was the driver.
All of the bus occupants received medical treatment and the majority have been treated and released from area hospitals.
According to Jasper County DPS troopers, a thorough inspection of the school bus and analysis of evidence collected at the crash scene show there were no complete breaches of the front or rear access doors and a large number of windows were cracked by still intact. Troopers found no evidence that any of the occupants had been ejected from the school bus during the crash.
Jasper County troopers are working to piece together the exact factors that contributed to the crash. Once the crash investigation is complete, troopers will determine whether to issue traffic citations based on the evidence collected from the scene.
The school bus was not equipped with seat belts and the wreck comes days after the 10 year anniversary of the Westbrook High School crash in which two members of the girl’s varsity soccer team were killed on the way to a playoff game.