Police Identify Victims Of Marshall County Bus Crash
Police Identify Victims Of Marshall County Bus Crash
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Police Identify Victims Of Marshall County Bus CrashThe names of the victims in Wednesday morning’s fatal accident in Marshall County involving an Eastern Pulaski Community Schools bus and truck were released last night.
Marshall County Coroner's Office identified the student killed in the crash as 13-year-old Owen Abbott, a Winamac Middle School student, according to WNDU.
The coroner's report lists his cause of death as multiple blunt force trauma. Abbott was seated at the rear of the bus when the truck collided with it.
An official autopsy is scheduled for today.
A GoFundMe page to help pay for Abbot’s funeral expenses has been set up. It lists his parents as Britni and Nick Fritz and Dean Abbott. As of this morning, $5,280 of the $15,000 goal has been raised.
Another student, Zane Bell, 14, was airlifted from the scene and taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend, according to an Indiana State Police news release. Bell’s injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. His mother told WNDU that he had a concussion and has since been released.
Other students were taken to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center in Plymouth for complaints of pain and reunification with parents, the ISP release states.
At the time of the crash, the bus was occupied by 38 eighth-grade students and three chaperones who were on the way to see “Elf, a Christmas Musical” at the Wagon Wheel Theatre in Warsaw.
At approximately 9:06 a.m. Wednesday, ISP troopers and Marshall County deputies responded to calls of a crash between a school bus and a truck on northbound U.S. 31, just north of Argos, according to the release.
Preliminary investigation by Trooper David Caswell indicates a yellow 2016 International bus, driven by Cheryl Warner, 54, Winamac, had just stopped, as required by law, at the railroad crossing just south of Michigan Road. As the bus began to accelerate, it was struck from behind in the left rear by a white 2016 Freightliner straight truck.
The truck, which was towing a trailer, was driven by Tylor Perry, 26, Camby.
Toxicology results are pending for both drivers, state police said.
.Weather is not believed to have been a factor.
Eastern Pulaski Community Schools Superintendent Dan Foster issued a statement Wednesday. In part, it states, “We are thankful that all the other students, including the student airlifted from the scene, as well as the bus driver, have been released from the hospital. We may need to help each other deal with some confused feelings.
“To that end, our school crisis team has coordinated school counselors, four county counselors, local pastors and others who were all on hand late this morning and afternoon and will be on campus again tomorrow to meet the emotional needs of our students, staff, and parents.”
Foster added, “We also request that you respect the family of the deceased student and allow them time to process their loss.”
Marshall County Prosecutor Nelson Chipman released a statement: "First, my entire office extends our heartfelt sympathies to the victims and their families in this tragedy.”
“The Indiana State Police is the lead investigative agency, and our office has the utmost confidence in the skills of the ISP officers involved,” Chipman said.
Wednesday’s crash is one of a string of traffic accidents this year involving buses.
WNDU was reporting this morning that a semitrailer heading the wrong way on an interstate in central Illinois collided head-on with a school bus Wednesday night carrying members of a high school basketball team, killing the driver of the truck and an adult on the bus. Eight girls on the bus were injured in the head-on crash on Interstate 74 near Downs, about 115 miles southwest of Chicago. Police say the bus driver and a coach also were injured.
Police say preliminary reports indicate the truck was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes.
On Oct. 30, just outside Rochester, three Mentone Elementary School students were killed and a Tippecanoe Valley Middle School student was injured when Alyssa Shepherd, 24, passed a stopped bus picking the children up and hit them. Killed were 9-year-old Alivia Stahl and twins Xzavier and Mason Ingle, 6. The fourth victim, Maverik Lowe, 11, has since been released from a Fort Wayne hospital.
In another accident reported on by KWTX channel 10 reported Monday that one adult was critically injured and several students were slightly hurt when a school bus was hit head-on by a car in North Texas. The Department of Public Safety says the Bridgeport Independent School District bus was hit Saturday night near Weatherford, 20 miles west of Fort Worth. Authorities are trying to determine why the southbound car hit the bus, which ended up on its side.
A woman in the car was critically injured and transported to a hospital. The male driver was also hurt. Five girls on the bus and that driver suffered minor injuries.
USA Today reported tragedy struck an Arkansas highway Monday when a youth football team from Memphis was involved in a bus crash as it traveled back home from a tournament in Texas. The bus in question was involved in a crash on Interstate 30 near Benton, Ark. One child was reported as dying in the accident, while some 45 other people were reportedly injured in the crash. It is unknown how many of those injured were children and how many were adult chaperones.
ISP was assisted in Wednesday’s crash by the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department, Marshall County Coroner’s Office, Med Flight, Argos Police Department, Indiana Department of Transportation Plymouth EMS and Plymouth Fire.
