A student suffered minor injuries Thursday afternoon when a school bus hit the brakes when it was hit by a large, falling tree in the 9000 block of West National Road (U.S. 40), said Fire Chief Jacob King, Bethel Twp. Clark County Fire Department.
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“It had to be crazy odds. One in a couple million” that a tree alongside a road would fall and hit a vehicle, Chief King said. That kind of incident usually occurs when there is high wind in a storm.
The bus was carrying 24 members of the North Union Wildcat varsity volleyball team and their coaches to a match at Tecumseh High School in New Carlisle when the tree, located alongside U.S. 40, hit the bus, King said.
“The fallen tree created the incident where the bus driver immediately initiated the brakes to control the bus,” he said.
“The bus driver seems to have done an outstanding job in controlling the bus and controlling the passengers,” the chief said, noting she came to a stop in the middle of the traffic lane.
The student, the only one aboard injured, was taken to a hospital as a precaution, the chief said. The front of the bus took most of the impact from the tree, he said.
Everyone was off-loaded and a second bus was called to complete the trip to Tecumseh High, just down the road in New Carlisle from the accident.
King said ODOT maintains the section of U.S. 40 where the accident occurred and a crew was being sent to clean up the debris from the accident.
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