A school bus driver in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, was killed after a coal truck slammed into the back of the bus while attempting to pick up a student, reported WPXI.com News.
The collision occurred Monday morning as Deborah Bopp, 54, slowed her bus on Route 22 in Derry Township. Student Brianna Dunlop told WPXI that she was seconds from boarding the bus when the coal truck rear-ended the school bus.
“I was almost on that bus. I was walking toward it, and I don’t have any … not even a scratch,” said Dunlop, a junior at Derry Area High School. “I‘m alive, and I wasn’t on that bus. I am so lucky.”
No other students were on board at the time, according to first responders.
A WPXI reporter on the scene tweeted a photo of the bus as well as the coal truck, which ended up in what appeared to be a storefront adjacent to the highway. The 59-year-old truck driver was transported to a local hospital.
The crash and resulting investigation shut down eastbound traffic.
