5 students, driver hurt when buses collide in NC

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Two charter buses carrying middle school students collided Friday morning in North Carolina, leaving five children and a driver injured, WSOC-TV reported.

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A spokesperson for the Pickens County School District told the news station that one bus driver and five students who reported feeling sore after the crash were taken to a hospital to get checked out. They were among 85 students and 21 chaperones who were on the buses when one rear-ended the other, sending it off the roadway and into the tree line along the shoulder of Interstate 85, WSOC reported.

The incident happened around 9:40 a.m. on I-85 in Gaston County, according to the news station. The buses were headed for the Carowinds amusement park for a class trip at the time of the crash.

Parent Kitta Milam told WSOC that students from Richard H. Gettys Middle School in Easley, South Carolina, were on the buses.

“My son did tell me one of his friends got a bloody nose and the bus driver couldn’t move,” she said. “He was shaken up, obviously. I mean he’s 12, it’s his first time in a crash so that’s really all I got from them.”

Buses were being sent to pick up the stranded students and their chaperones after the crash. In a statement obtained by WSOC, school district officials said they were “relieved there were no serious injuries.”

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