WINONA, Miss. (WTVA) - Montgomery County school bus number 23 sits in the back of the school district bus lot -- a testament to what happened at the intersection of Lodi Road and Highway 82 near Winona Friday morning.
Police say the bus driver was on his route around 7 a-m carrying 19 elementary and older kids to the county school in Kilmichael when he stopped at the intersection.
"He looked up," says Sgt. Jody Windham with the Winona Police Department. "He couldn't see because he said the sun was in his eyes. He said he had sunglasses on, but he said it still blinded him. He said he started across, and he said he tried to make it. He said he saw the truck coming but couldn't make it in time."
Windham says there were more than 100 feet of skid marks near the intersection. He says the driver of an unloaded log truck says he could not stop.
"He said he saw the school bus driver had stopped at first," Windham continues. "But then he said it started easing on out coming across the road. And he said he started applying his brakes, and he slid 313 feet and then popped him."
The bus then rolled, according to students who were inside, and then most of them apparently climbed out using windows and the emergency door.
"We had to jump out of the emergency door on the bus," says student Keundra Avery. "And we were standing out waiting for people to come, and then finally, an ambulance came."
Four students had to be flown to Jackson's University Medical Center with a variety of serious injuries.
There's no word yet on their conditions. Another 14 students were taken to Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital in Winona where parents and relatives waited anxiously for them to be released.
"And I would just like to know one thing -- why doesn't the buses have seat belts on them?" asks Jerdean Topps, Keanundra's grandmother.
"Right now, we're going to Jackson to check on my niece because unfortunately, she didn't come out so lucky," says Amanda Lane, who had a daughter riding the bus. "She received brain trauma. She was with one of the children that was flown to Jackson."
