Wake County school bus crash sends 3 to hospital

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Three Wake County students ended their school day at Wake Med Children's Hospital.

Their school bus was involved in a crash Thursday afternoon just after 3 p.m.

"All we heard was like boom, boom, boom!" described Southeast Raleigh 10th-grader Dasia Newman.

According to first responders on scene, Newman was one of 33 students on bus 1417. It was transporting students from Southeast Raleigh High School, Centennial Magnet Middle School and Vernon Malone College and Career Academy.

The bus was heading north on Lead Mine Road and a Turf & Scapes Residential & Commercial Landscaping truck was heading south when suddenly the two driver sides collided.

"A girl in front of me, she hit her head when the truck hit the bus, going to the right, she hit her head kind of hard" Newman recalled. "I was like, I need to call my mom, I need to call my mom fast, fast, fast!"

Rae Boney's son, Sebastian, is a freshmen at Vernon Malone. She said she couldn't believe it when she got a call from him.

"Normal crazy day, get a phone call from the kid, 'Mom the bus has been in a car accident,' " Boney said.

"Buses don't have seatbelts so that's always a concern," Boney added.

An EMS supervisor told our crew four children from the bus were evaluated. Three of those four students were taken to Wake Children's Hospital.

The rest of the students waited on another bus until their families picked them up.

EMS told our crew there was only one person in the landscaping truck, and he declined to be taken to the hospital.

There is no word yet on what caused the accident. Raleigh police said with so many people involved, it will be more than a day before their final report is out.