School bus overturns on I-5 in Washington, injuring students

School bus overturns on I-5 in Washington, injuring students

Authorities aren't sure why the bus suddenly rolled after taking an off-ramp, as even though the driver evidently said something about not having any brakes, they could find no evidence that anything was wrong with them.

A school bus lost control Saturday night as it exited I-5 in Washington state and crashed, resulting in 10 people — eight of them students — being sent to the hospital.

The students were returning to King’s High School in Shoreline after a basketball tournament in Mount Vernon, according to a local TV station report.

The bus driver, who is also the basketball team’s coach, and several students had to be hospitalized, but fortunately no one had serious injuries. One of the people on the bus, David Barhanovich, was quoted in the TV report as saying he remembers the bus hitting a couple of bumps before losing control, and that he remembered the driver saying something about not having any brakes as the bus picked up speed on the off-ramp.

The bus started rolling before stopping on one side and fishtailing down the off-ramp, finally skidding to a stop. The Washing State Patrol said that brakes were working on the bus, and school officials said all buses have passed their last inspection in 2014, so it was unclear exactly what went wrong.

As to whether or not the driver would be investigated, the head of schools, Eric Rasmussen, said that their concern was for the safety of everyone involved and that that situation would be taken care of when the time comes, according to the report.

Rasmussen said he hopes parents don’t become overly concerned about sending kids on buses for extracurricular activities in the future, as it opens up students to a wide range of activities and it is typically very safe. He said it’s the first time they’ve had an accident like this, calling the situation “very unfortunate.”

Authorities will look at the on-board camera on the bus to help determine what, if anything, should be investigated further.

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