Bystanders, first responders worked together in school bus crash: They ‘became a team’

The student who died at the scene was ejected from the bus during the crash. Officials did not identify the student or release an age or grade on Tuesday.

First responders from multiple agencies rushed to the scene.

German Twp. Police Chief Mike Stitzel said in the immediate aftermath of the crash, bystanders and officers got the bus flipped onto its side.

“That saved lives,” Stitzel said.

Stitzel said nurses who were in the area helped “tremendously” with assessing the students and helping getting them to the parent reunification center.

“They joined in and became a team,” Stitzel said.

Shannon White, an emergency room nursing supervisor who lives five minutes from where the crash occurred, said she and her paramedic husband went to the scene not knowing if their 5-year-old son was on the bus. When they arrived, the found their two nephews and a niece unharmed on the scene and they comforted the first, third and fifth grader. The three had been sitting in the same seat on the bus.

White said she began to triage and comfort the students at the scene. She also called a student’s mother to let her know they were OK.

She put her “emotions to the side” and helped as much as she could as she watched other people, many in street clothes, do the same, White said.

“There was just people everywhere trying to kind of help the kids and comfort them and make sure they were OK and try to get them to stop crying, and just kind of reassessing,” White said. “What they went through was obviously a traumatic experience.”

Twenty-three students were transported to various hospitals, including 10 who were transported in personal vehicles by family members. One of the injured students has life-threatening injuries, and the other students have non-life-threatening injuries, according to OSHP.

The ages of the students on the bus were not available. OSHP had not released an update on the student in serious condition by Tuesday afternoon.

The school bus was traveling west when a 2010 Honda Odyssey going east went left of the center line and into the path of the oncoming school bus, according to OSHP. The bus driver attempted to avoid the Honda by driving onto the shoulder, but still collided with the minivan and flipped over off the road.

“It’s up there with one of the worst (crashes) I’ve seen,” German Twp. Fire Department Captain Richard Craig said.

The scene was chaotic, with children screaming and crying, first responders getting kids off the bus and onto stretchers to be transported to the hospital and bystanders offering help.

The minivan driver, Hermanio Joseph, 35, and the passenger of the minivan were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Ross said an interpreter was needed to communicate with Joseph.

The school bus driver, Alfred Collier, 68, suffered minor injuries in the crash and was not transported to the hospital.

Multiple agencies rushed to the crash scene, including the German Twp. Fire Department and EMS, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Springfield Twp. Fire Department and EMS, Clark County Coroner’s Office, Clark County Engineer’s Office, Springfield Fire Rescue Division, Springfield Police Division, Dan’s Towing and the Ohio Department of Transportation.

“Today’s just been a horrible day just because the fact that these poor children was on the bus — their first day of school — and they didn’t make it there because of the crash,” Clark County Sheriff Deborah Burchett said.

A parent reunification center was set up at the German Twp. Firehouse at 3940 Lawrenceville Drive. Parents were emotional, hugging their children tightly while many cried.

“It’s a tragic incident, and we ask for space and patience and time as community members, emergency personnel on scene, families affected, the school district and all its members start the healing process,” Ross said.

Students in the crash were transported to hospitals including Kettering Health Springfield’s Emergency Center, Dayton Children’s Hospital and Mercy Health - Springfield. The crash was declared a “mass casualty” incident, meaning that 10 or more patients needed to be seen or treated following the incident.

White said she and her husband discussed how they would broach the topic of the crash with their kindergartner with him likely having heard things at school and his cousins having been on the bus. She said the family will meet with her nephews and niece as well.

“We’re getting ready to meet up with them and make sure that they’re all OK, just kind of sit down with them and explain that, ‘This is what happened, this isn’t an ordinary thing that happens.” White said. “’We just want to make sure that you know you’re safe and that you’re aware of what happened and comfort your friends and everyone that was involved in the situation.’”