LICKING COUNTY — Newly obtained 911 calls reveal what eyewitnesses saw and heard after a deadly crash involving a charter bus full of students on I-70 in Ohio on Tuesday.
In eight 911 calls obtained by News Center 7 Wednesday, witnesses detail hearing and seeing that crash and the large fire that followed the impact in Licking County.
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“It’s a semi and there’s like a bunch of cars around it because they were coming up on a jam anyways. And all of a sudden I heard a boom and I looked in my rearview mirror and I saw smoke coming up,” one 911 caller told dispatchers.
That caller then said she saw people “scrambling” to get out of their cars and running toward the side ditch.
Another caller said a semi “slammed into a bunch of cars” and caused a huge fire.
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An adult who was traveling with the Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools called 911 and told a dispatcher that there were 52 students on the bus at the time of the crash and that the back of the bus was on fire.
“It’s on fire and we need help,” the woman told the dispatcher.
She also told dispatchers that they were doing CPR on one student.
>> ORIGINAL REPORT: 3 students, 3 others dead after fiery bus crash on I-70 in Ohio
As News Center 7 previously reported, the crash involved five vehicles, including the charter bus carrying students and the semi. Three high school students on the bus and three people from one of the passenger vehicles involved in the crash died. The district confirmed Tuesday night that those three people were a teacher in the district and two parent chaperones.
The crash remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.