Police: Dump truck driver fell asleep just before head-on wreck with CMS school bus
A dump truck driver fell asleep before colliding head-on with a Charlotte-Mecklenburg School bus on Wednesday morning, according to a police crash report.
As a result of the three-vehicle wreck in south Charlotte 14 students on the bus were sent to the hospital, officials said. On Wednesday, Medic said 17 people total were injured, including the driver of the dump truck and the bus driver.
The dump truck driver was cited for driving left of center, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said in an email to The Charlotte Observer and other media outlets Thursday, without naming the driver.
The truck was westbound on Sharon Road West, according to the report. It crossed the left center line, hit a car and barreled head-on into the bus, according to the report released Thursday by CMPD. The bus was headed to South Mecklenburg High.
The school bus veered off the right side of the road and smashed through a metal fence, police said in the report.
The drivers of the dump truck and school bus had “major injuries,” while the car driver “had no apparent injuries and refused Medic,” according to the report.
The drivers of the bus and the dump truck were pinned in their vehicles. The dump truck driver was freed in about an hour and the school bus driver in 30 minutes, Charlotte Fire battalion Chief Michael Gerin told reporters at the scene.
Both drivers were conscious and stable, he said.
“The problem we encountered was the high impact to both the CMS bus and the dump truck,” Gerin told reporters.
“Extensive problems were noted when we arrived ... We were able to access the kids very quickly, get them separated and start assessing their injuries,” Kenny Phillips, Medic operations supervisor, told reporters.
The students were taken to hospitals on Medic’s mass casualty bus, Phillips said.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 5:30 PM.