PANOLA COUNTY, Miss. — The Mississippi Highway Patrol has confirmed that a driver died after colliding with a South Panola school bus Wednesday morning.
The wreck happened about 7:15 on Highway 315 near Highway 6 in Panola County, MHP said.
The South Panola School District said none of the 15 children on board the bus, nor the bus driver, were injured.
Aleisha Mackey said the bus had just picked up her children when the wreck happened. She got a call from her daughter and turned around immediately. The kids and driver of the bus were shaken, knowing there was someone in the car, she said.
Her daughter, 12-year-old Aubrey Osborne, says she was sitting towards the back of the school bus when she heard a loud bang.
“All of a sudden I just jerked back and hit my head on the front seat, and all I saw was glass coming up from the back of the bus. It just shattered. I looked back, and I saw a car. Everybody in the back, the high schoolers, were screaming ‘The car is stuck under the bus,” she said.
It was a heart-wrenching sight.
Most of the car was under the Panola County school bus.
“I told Ms. Camp, the bus driver, to open the door, so we could evacuate, because I saw smoke coming out from the car,” Osborne said.
They all evacuated.
“We all getting out when I saw the car, and I just started crying. The car was submerged under the bus, and the only thing that was out was her trunk. Everything was slung out of it.”
Mackey said she and a few other people tried to get a response from the driver but had no luck.
“It was really scary. I know I don’t want to see anything like that ever again in my life. It was pretty devastating when they finally got the lady out and air-lifted her,” she said.
It’s unclear what led up to the crash, but Mackey says the parent who was there when it happened told her “The lady didn’t hit her brakes at all whenever she ran into the back of the bus.”
The driver of the car was airlifted to a hospital and later died, MHP said.
They have not identified the victim pending notification of family.
The students eventually got on another bus. They all made it to school safely.