TULSA, Okla. — Newly released video shows an SUV, traveling at 60 miles per hour, slam head on into a stopped school bus. The driver may have experienced a medical emergency that only resulted in minor injuries to eight students.
The driver who hit the bus wasn’t seriously injured because his airbags deployed, reported News On 6.
The bus was transporting 37 students to Tulsa’s McLain Junior High School Monday morning. A video camera on the bus recorded the SUV coming into view, striking a white car, and then driving straight at the school bus, without swerving or braking.
Police say the 40-year-old SUV driver had recently had seizures, so they are trying to determine if he had one that morning, causing him to lose control of the vehicle. It took 20 minutes to extricate the man from the vehicle and he was talking upon arrival at the hospital.
The bus driver stopped the bus when she saw the car coming, but was on a bridge and unable to pull to the side. Police say the bus driver did a good job of making sure everyone on board was OK and getting the kids to stay in their seats; then she began an inventory of who was hurt.
The injured students complained of bumps and bruises from hitting their heads, either on the seats or each other. Five parents later took their kids to be checked by a doctor.