Officials thankful no one injured in bus wreck

GREENBRIER School bus 41 was hit almost head-on in an accident on Highway 65 about 7:22 a.m. yesterday. Bus driver Matt Barnett, 34, is given praise for being so attentive as to see it coming and had his bus almost to a complete stop when the male driver's car swerved across four lanes of traffic to hit the bus on the right front side. Having already picked up all of the children on the route, the bus was southbound in the inside lane on Hwy. 65 getting ready to drop off some of the children at the middle school.

The driver of the 2001 white Chevrolet Impala, Steven Sampson, 22, from Bee Branch, was northbound in the inside lane.

Barnett said, "I saw the driver coming with his head down on the steering wheel. When he was in the passing lane coming into the median lane, I knew something was wrong." The car was estimated as going about 35 miles per hour. At first, he thought the driver was going to make a turn into the vacant lot on the west side of Highway 65, so Barnett slowed. When he realized they would be hit, he was almost stopped. When told he was a hero, Barnett said, "I didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't have done."

Sampson was conscious and taken to Conway Regional Hospital with a bleeding head injury. He was ticketed for driving while intoxicated, second offense; careless and prohibitive driving; and no seat belt. The front end of his car was partially under the bumper of the school bus with extensive damage.

Steve Wood, transportation director of the schools, said, "None of the 27 children on the bus sustained injury, nor was the bus driver hurt." He praised the alert bus driver for his fast thinking in keeping the children calm and in their seats and doing what he could to minimize the accident. All the kids said they were fine. Because the accident was almost in front of the school, three school nurses rushed to the scene and, along with first responders, checked out all 27 children and found everyone OK. There were 19 from Wooster Elementary School, two from Greenbrier Middle School, three from Greenbrier Junior High School and three from Greenbrier High School.

Todd Edwards, principal at the middle school, then walked all the kids across the highway to his school where another bus picked them up and took them on to their correct schools.

Although the $80,000 bus does not look badly damaged, there is extensive internal damage estimated between $4,000 to $5,000.

Wood said he would pull a bus into temporary use that they usually use for trips and use it as a route bus until Bus 41 is repaired.