Several Watooka Day Primary School pupils narrowly escaped serious injury yesterday at Half Mile Wismar, Linden when a speeding minibus crashed into the parked maxi school bus they were in.
According to reports, the minibus BLL 3286 was heading out of Half Mile around 2.45 pm yesterday when it collided with maxi school bus BLL 3286 owned and operated by Eartha Ashley.
Ashley said she had just returned from crossing a Watooka Day School child over the Half Mile road and was about to enter her bus when she noticed the other bus approaching at top speed and swerving from side to side. Realizing that there was likely to be a collision, she said, she rushed into her bus, still parked and held on to the steering wheel and mashed her brakes.
Seconds later, the swerving minibus hit the side of the school bus smashing some of the windows in the process. However, Ashley said she had cautioned the school children to position themselves for impact and therefore only one child, her daughter, sustained minor injuries from the broken glass. Ashley was also cut by the broken glass.
Giving an account of what went wrong with the speeding bus, its lone passenger who also suffered minor injuries said the driver lost control of it when he attempted to overtake a Mayor and Town Council garbage truck which was operating in the vicinity at the time.
The driver was taken into police custody and charged with several counts of dangerous driving and is to appear in a Georgetown court today.
Persons who witnessed the incident complimented Ashley for her effort in protecting the schoolchildren. They said that had she not held on to her steering wheel and stepped on her brakes the bus would have been pushed off the side of the road and down the steep gully just off the edge of the road where she was parked.
