8 students sent to hospital after Charlotte school bus crash involving another vehicle
Eight West Mecklenburg High School students were taken to a hospital for evaluation after their bus crashed with another vehicle, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokeswoman said Tuesday morning.
The students were taken to the hospital “out of an abundance of caution,” spokeswoman Susan Vernon-Devlin said.
“Minor injuries all of them,” Medic reported on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The students were on bus number C629, which continued to the school after the wreck with other students aboard, Vernon-Devlin said. Those students did not require medical attention, she said.
The wreck occurred at Tuckaseegee Road and Calton Lane just before 8 a.m. Medic reported. It’s unclear who was at fault or how the crash happened.
Vernon-Devlin declined to release further details about the wreck, stating the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department was in charge of the investigation into how the wreck happened.
CMPD won’t release school bus accident report
The CMPD Records Division refused to release the crash report to the Observer, citing privacy laws:
“Crash reports have personal information which is protected under (N.C. Gen. Statute) section 2721 (a.) and (b.) of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. The information may be released only under certain exceptions and qualifications mentioned in the directive and will not be released to public entities from CMPD.”
The CMPD Records Division denied releasing the accident report to the Observer a second time after the outlet requested the document with names and personal identifying information redacted.
“Only an accident report was filed for this incident, which we cannot release since accident reports are not public information,” the Records Division replied in an email. “No public incident report is available.”
CMPD spokesman Michael Allinger provided the accident report number to the Observer when the paper requested it from him. However, that report number does not show up in the CMPD crash report database.
In a Tuesday morning email to the Observer, Allinger said: “Accident reports, unless it’s a major crash investigation with death or serious injuries – aren’t usually released to the public except to those involved in the accident.”
Allinger also said the school system might be able to provide more information.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published January 30, 2024 at 9:18 AM.