Last Updated on May 1, 2012 4:29 pm
The Wilkes Journal Patriot is reporting that shortly after 3:30 p.m. today, emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene of a Wilkes County school bus wreck involving 13 injured people.
All 12 Millers Creek Elementary students on the bus, which was bus 125, and the bus driver were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries, said Dr. Wanda Hutchinson, Wilkes associate school superintendent.
Mrs. Hutchinson said two students were transported to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. She said one of them had an elbow injury and the other a head laceration.
The bus driver, Betty Eller, and 10 students were taken to Wilkes Regional Medical Center. The driver was released from WRMC about 5:30 p.m. today and students taken to WRMC were expected to be released soon, said Mrs. Hutchinson.
The single vehicle wreck occurred near the intersection of Green Acres Road and Millers Crossing in Millers Creek.
Authorities at the scene said the westbound bus was coming out of a curve and going downhill on Green Acres Road, when it went off the right side of the road, over-corrected, went off the left side of the road, struck an embankment and then flipped over on its side in the two-lane paved road.
She said Ms. Eller was an excellent school bus driver with over 20 years of experience. She also said drug testing was mandatory for a school bus driver after a wreck.
Millers Creek Fire Department first responders were the first on the scene, followed by Wilkes Rescue Squad and Wilkes Emergency Medical Services personnnel.
Emergency personnel removed children from the bus through rear and top emergency hatches.
Trooper R.D. Holbrook of the N.C. Highway Patrol is investigating.
Mrs. Hutchinson went to WRMC to check on the injured people taken there and Dr. Marty Hemric, Wilkes school superintendent, went to the wreck scene. Wilkes school nurses also went to WRMC to assist.
Hemric and Millers Creek Elementary Principal Susan Blackburn went to Baptist Hospital later Tuesday afternoon to check on two students there. A Wilkes school nurse had already gone to Baptist.
Mrs. Hutchinson said parents of the students were notified soon after the accident occurred and they met their children at the hospitals.
She said school officials wanted to thank emergency personnel for how well they handled the situation.
Green Acres Road was closed to traffic where it intersects with Smithey Country Lane after the accident occurred.
Millers Crossing intersects with Green Acres Road about two miles north of where Green Acres Road intersects with McGlamery Road.
*information per Wilkes Journal Patriot*
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*information below from WFMY News 2*
A bus carrying students from Millers Creek Elementary was involved in a crash Tuesday afternoon.
Trooper R.D. Holbrook with the NC Highway Patrol said that around 3:36pm, a bus carrying students from the elementary school overturned on Green Acres Road near Millers Crossing Drive.
Holbrook said the driver, Betty Sloope Eller, 74 ran off to the side of Green Acres Road on the right and lost control of the bus. When Eller tried to get back on the road she drove across it and ran off the other side, hit an embankment and the bus flipped on its side.
There were 12 students on the school bus plus the driver at the time of the crash. Two of the students were taken Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem and eight of the students were treated at Wilkes Regional.
All students that went to Wilkes Regional were treated and release. Holbrook said he was unable to get an update on the two that went to Baptist Hospital. He said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
Trooper Holbrook said Betty Eller is charged with Exceeding a Safe Speed. He said she's been a bus driver for 23 years.
