MARION, Ark. –- A school bus driver is in trouble on the job and two elementary students are recovering after a school bus accident.
At the scene in Jericho, scraps of headlights are scattered off the country road, along with a knocked down warning sign about power lines.
Muddy tracks also show whoever was driving lost their grip and caused a close call scene.
“We hit the poll hard, and then I hit my head on seat hard,” said 10-year-old Marcalyan Blackwell, he was on the bus at the time of the accident.
“The bus driver ran off the side of the road, into a ditch which had the bus leaning, it impacted a light pole,” said the Marcalyan’s father, Marcus Blackwell.
Blackwell’s 7-year-old and 10-year-old sons were on a Marion Schools bus when the crash happened, Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re scared to go back on the bus,” said Marcalyan.
But it’s not the accident that has Blackwell sickened with the Marion School District. He says instead of the bus driver calling the police, he called his boss.
What’s worse, no one from the district told the boys’ parents about the crash, they heard about it from their kids.
“The first call made should have been to the authorities, so paramedics could have been checked out my children,” said Blackwell.
Jeff Altimus, Deputy Superintendent with the district, didn’t want to go on camera, but told WREG, both the transportation director and bus driver believed the incident was just minor.
Because the kids appeared to be OK and not hurt, the transportation director drove them to their stop in a different district vehicle.
The district says from now on, they’ll make sure to talk to the parents of children involved in bus incidents, but Blackwell believes the district doesn`t really care about his kids.
“Hell they good, I’m going to just take them to the house, and whatever come of it, they good. We got the bus out, they can’t say we did this or did that. That’s how I’m taking it,” said Blackwell.
It’s an insult he says that is keeping these two elementary school students off the bus.
“We’re going to the doctor, we’re not riding the bus no more,” said Marcalyan.
The district says they spoke to an adult who was at the home of the kids’ bus stop.
The bus driver involved was disciplined, but officials won’t give any more information.
