2 children dead after Georgia school bus, train collide

The bus was headed to Northwest Elementary School in Chatsworth, Georgia

March 28, 2000
Web posted at: 7:04 p.m. EST (0004 GMT)

TENNGA, Georgia (CNN) -- Two children were killed and five others injured Tuesday after a freight train tore through a school bus -- splitting it in two -- on the Tennessee-Georgia border.

A CSX freight train hit a Murray County, Georgia school bus shortly before 7 a.m. at a rail crossing inside Polk County, Tennessee, on a road that winds back and forth across the border.

A 7-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy were killed in the accident, a spokeswoman at the Polk County Sheriff's Department told CNN.

Only the CSX engineer and conductor were aboard the 33-car freight train, which was hauling automobiles, a CSX spokeswoman told CNN. Neither were hurt; both were receiving counseling.

The bus driver, a 34-year-old woman, was also injured, but not seriously.

The bus, which was not full, was picking up children to go to Northwest Elementary School, north of Chatsworth, Georgia. Less than ten children were said to have been on board at the time of the accident.

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Train wreck

The collision "sounded like damned thunder or a bomb blown up," said Joe Brown, who lives about 300 feet from the train crossing and helped rescue the victims.

Brown said the bus split, with the cab portion driven about 100 feet along the track and the rest of the bus pushed 40 to 50 feet. Some of the children were ejected from the bus, he said.

A reporter at the scene told CNN the railroad crossing was marked by a sign, but that it had no flashing signals and no crossbar.

The train's engineer told investigators he blew his whistle as he approached the intersection and applied his emergency brake as soon as he saw the bus, said Ken Uselton, a Tennessee state trooper.

According to Brown, the weather was mostly clear, although there were a few sprinkles of rain at the time of the crash.

The train track curves through some pine trees just before the crossing in the hilly terrain, making it difficult for a train's crew to see the crossing, Brown said.

A Life Force helicopter transported five children to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The five injured children are ages 5 to 9, said Sharon Kayhill, a spokeswoman at Erlanger Medical Center. On Tuesday afternon, three of them were listed in critical condition; the other two had been upgraded to serious condition.

The train was bound from Cincinnati to Tampa, Florida, said CSX spokeswoman Kathy Burns, who called the crash "a terrible, terrible tragedy."

Veronica Ownby, who lives about a quarter of a mile from the accident scene, said the school bus usually travels 100 feet into Tennessee to turn around in a church parking lot.

Ownby's grandson, 7-year-old Zachary Matthews, rides the bus in the afternoons but she drives him to school in the mornings, she said.

"He didn't go this morning," she said. "He's upset over all his little buddies."

Northwest Elementary maintained its regular schedule on Tuesday. Three counselors were at the school, although most children were not told of the accident, school secretary Tommie Brown said.

"We feel like that's best for the children, just having a regular day of classes," she said.

Northwest Elementary School contains grades kindergarten through 5.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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