School Kids Recovering After Bus Crash

Several school children are recovering this afternoon after the bus they were on was involved in a three-car crash Friday morning. The accident occurred near the intersection of Ross Road and Pearce Lane.

It was a violent chain reaction collision that tossed everyone inside a Del Valle school bus.

Juan Palafox’s 8th grade son was sitting in a middle row when the bus was hit.

“We just felt ourselves jolt forward a little and we all got scared because we saw the car underneath our bus this liquid coming out from under the car we were scared thought it was gasoline, so we thought lets just get out of the bus,” said Palafox’s son who also goes by Juan.

The car wedged under the bus was driven by Sabador Pineda’s oldest daughter. She was taking her 16-year-old sister to school.

“The bus had got to stop, and my daughter stopped too,” said Pineda.

But a man driving a red SUV was coming up on the gridlock and did not stop in time. He crashed into the back of the sedan tossing it forward.

“Slammed into the bus, that’s what happened,” said Pineda.

Pearce Lane at the Ross Rd intersection was closed as paramedics stabilized Pineda’s daughters and 18 students on board the bus.

“So basically it’s a triage process we assessed every single patient we moved the patients up that had some complaint assessed their injuries and started treating them and systematically started transporting them to the hospital based on the most serious complaint down to the most minimal complaint,” said James Shamard with the Austin/Travis Co EMS.

A total 20 people were taken by ambulance although none of the injuries were considered to be life threatening. Four different hospital emergency rooms received the patients. Six were taken to dell children’s hospital, according to Dr. Coburn Allen.

“We do have a few children who seem to have sprains or strains to the muscles and the neck and several have injuries to their arms from trying to break the fall,” Allen said.

There were 52 people on the bus at the time it was hit. Those, who were not hurt, were put onto another bus and taken to their middle and high schools.

“What we do is we alert our school nurses and so what they will be doing is periodic checks throughout the day,” said Del Valle ISD spokesperson Celina Bly.

The bus drove away with only minor damage to its back bumper and the driver of the SUV left with a ticket for causing the chain reaction crash.

The quick response by rescue crews and medical teams was no fluke. A special emergency action plan was activated when the first call for help came in.