According to Knox County Deputy Keith “Buster” Liford, the bus driver, seven-year veteran Mary Walters, turned the bus around in a driveway, and on her way back out of Johnson Hollow – a narrow part of the road, too narrow for two vehicles to pass, the officer noted – she encountered a vehicle in the opposite lane, and her tires dropped off the shoulder.
The officer explained the bus driver was unable to recover because the ground was too soft as it was saturated from the wet early March weather.
“The driver really did a great job,” said Deputy Liford. “She fought it for 33 feet before encountering a section of the road that had been washed away.”
School officials say there were no visible injuries to either the children or the adults on the bus; however, the school sent another bus to pick them all up and transported them to Baptist Health Corbin to rule out any injuries.
Walters is a seven-year veteran substitute bus driver for the KCEOC school system. School officials say it is common for a substitute driver to keep his or her skills fresh. When this happens, the regular bus driver serves as the bus monitor.
The 25-passenger bus was equipped with child safety harnesses, and school officials say all the children were in their harnesses. All the buses used by KCEOC hold no more than 25 passengers, as compared to the 33-passenger public school buses.
“It’s easier to maneuver a smaller bus into the hollows,” said Tish Coldiron, Child Development Director at KCEOC. “One bus is assigned to its own classroom, which is about 20 kids.”
The school contacted each of the children’s parents and had them meet their children at the hospital.
In the meantime, the school has protocols in place that they follow for any bus accident, even one with no apparent injuries.
“This is the best ending to what could have been a horrible tragedy,” said Tish Coldiron, Child Development Director at KCEOC. “We want to commend our driver for that. The safety of our children are our first priority.”
