More details are surfacing on the fatal activity school bus crash outside of St. Louis earlier this month.
News station KSDK in Rolla, Mo., spoke with two girls who suffered serious injuries when one school bus carrying high school band members from St. James High School to an outing at the Six Flags St. Louis amusement park crashed into another school bus in its convoy.
Dani Klein was seated next to Jessica Brinker, the 15-year-old high school student who died in the crash. Klein suffered broken vertebrae and a fractured skull, but told KSDK her injuries could have been far worse if Brinker hadn’t shoved Klein out of her bus seat just before the second school bus rear-ended them.
Initial reports from the accident investigation undertaken by the Missouri Highway Patrol indicated that the initial crash of the first school bus, which struck a pickup truck, ran it over and then mounted a semi-truck cab, was caused by inattention of the school bus driver for failing to notice that traffic was slowing down. Then, the second school bus driver, who reports say was following too closely, hit the rear of the first bus.
Klein recalled that the students were “tossed around” during the first crash between their school bus, the pickup truck and the semi cab.
Emily Perona was also riding on Klein’s and Brinker’s school bus. When the second bus struck, she was pinned between school bus seats and her pelvis was crushed. A photo on the KSDK Web site showed a frail looking Perona in a wheelchair with two leg braces and a neck brace. But, the news station added, doctors were “impressed with her recovery so far.” Perona is expected to remain in the hospital for at least another month.
Perona also thanked one of her rescuers, “Ty,” a motorist also on his way to Six Flags who stopped after the crash and stayed with Perona until emergency personnel arrived on scene.
“I guess it’s such shock that I can’t remember everything. But I do remember the guy Ty jumping onto the bus and staying with me. Talking me through it. Telling me I was going to be okay,” she added.
