COLUMBUS, Ohio — A high school student at Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools recounted what she saw after the charter bus she was on was rear-ended by a semitrailer in Licking County Tuesday morning, causing the vehicles to catch fire.
The bus, carrying Tuscarawas Valley students and chaperones to an Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus, was struck on Interstate 70. At least 6 people died and more than a dozen others were injured, according to Licking County Emergency Management Agency Director Sean Grady.
Lt. Nathan Dennis of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said that 15 of the 18 people taken from the bus were students.
10TV’s Lacey Crisp spoke to sophomore Tori Wilson who was sitting toward the back of the bus when it was hit.
Wilson said she overheard someone talking about a fire, saying that they needed to get out, but she was struggling because she was stuck.
“I had a kid like over top of me having a seizure and not moving… unresponsive. I had my friend beside me to my right, that was sitting right to where I was, where I was gonna sit, but she said that I could have the inside towards the window. And all I could see was her head and the rest was all crushed underneath seats.”
Wilson said while the bus was burning, the junior high band director kept on running back onto the bus, grabbing students and pulling them to safety.
“The kid behind me was complaining [about] his legs and I was trying to get out, but like I didn't wanna crush him because anytime I moved the seats moved cause I was trying to get out and then he starts like screaming in pain," Wilson said. "The kid that was on the far right of the three, he was in the middle of the aisle and not moving."
Eventually, she was able to pull herself out of a window, safely making it out.
Wilson’s mom told 10TV that she was just relieved that both of her kids who were on the bus were OK.