Siblings Recount Horror Of Bus Crash
There are parts of Wednesday’s bus crash that Jaxon, Delanie and Parker Bame will never forget.
It was on that day when John Wagoner, 61, the driver of bus #28, failed to stop for three other Wawasee Community School Corporation buses setting off a chain reaction event that injured approximately 50 students. Wagoner himself was airlifted from the crash with serious internal injuries.
Jaxon, 15, and a freshman at Wawasee High School, was seated near the rear of bus #28 when the crash happened. He recalled, “When we first hit, it just sounded like metal smashing; like a loud roar almost. Kids started crying and screaming … I wish I would get the sound of my head.”
Parker, 12, was also seated at the back of the bus. He remembered of the crash, “I heard someone start screaming and then I heard someone yell ‘John, the bus!’ Then I just looked up and saw the back of their bus come through the windshield.”
Fourteen-year-old Delanie was at the epicenter of the crash and “really dodged a bullet,” according to her dad, Ron Bame. “As a family friend said, there was definitely a guardian angel holding on to her.”
Delanie said she was actually standing right next to Wagoner when the bus slammed into bus #44. “He called me up there to ask me a question,” she explained. The eighth-grader said the school radioed Wagoner to ask if a certain female student was on the bus. Delanie had a friend riding home with her that day and, according to her, Wagoner wanted to know if she was the student the school was inquiring about.
“He was looking in the mirror,” Delanie said of her bus driver, thinking he was apparently looking for any other unfamiliar faces on the bus.
According to the Bame children, driver inattention seemed to be only the cause of the crash. All three say they don’t believe Wagoner attempted to brake just because of how fast the accident happened. Kosciusko County’s accident investigation team released preliminary findings Friday saying the brakes were functioning properly on the bus.
While Delanie does not recall the actual impact or even what happened to her she explained, “I was told by this girl on my bus that (Wagoner) threw his arm out to grab me, but I don’t really remember.”
Ron Bame added, “I think he probably did, just because of how she’s bruised.” Delanie suffered a bruised left shoulder and thigh, and sustained a large bruise and scrape over her heart. She also had a cut on the left side of her head. “I think he probably put his arm out and pushed her behind the seat but she didn’t quite make it all the way,” he said. “To me it looks like she got about halfway behind the seat and that’s why her left side is bruised.”
After the immediate shock of what happened had set in, Jaxon said he heard kids screaming and crying. He said, “Everyone was on the floor. I saw bloody noses, black eyes. Just like everybody holding their side or head from hitting the seats.”
Parker added, “People were on the floor in the aisle. Some people were like lying down in their seats.” He received a small cut to his head and said one boy was wearing glasses that cut into his nose when he was thrown into something. That boy was bleeding pretty badly, according the Parker.
Delanie remembered kids getting stepped on by other students who were panicking and trying to get off the bus. She remembered running to the back of the bus out of fear.
Jaxon, who suffered only a minor cut on his lip, was among the first to start helping others off the bus. “My first thought was to get to Delanie to see if she was OK,” he said. “Then I told my friend Ryan to bust the back door open and he got it opened, then I started getting kids up off the ground and out of seats till I found Delanie.”
He said diesel fuel was pouring out of the fuel tank and added, “Kids were stepping on the frame of the bus to get off. There was about 4 feet of the frame sticking out of the back.”
Although the Bame children say they are not suffering any real emotional effects from the crash, they know others are. Delanie said kids on bus #44 were exiting the bus from the windows because the rear emergency door was smashed. She noted, “One of my friends jumped out a window and wanted to go to a school counselor because she wanted to talk about it.”
Delanie did not return to school Thursday or Friday, but Jaxon and Parker said they have heard some students blaming their sister for the crash. “I’m just like, whatever, you weren’t there. You don’t know. It wasn’t her fault,” Jaxon said.
Ron Bame explained he does not want to blame anyone but added, “At the end of the day, it’s about accountability … we could have been planning a funeral right now but because we’re not I’m just supposed to accept it and say that it’s OK.
“There’s procedures and processes in place to keep this stuff from happening. We put our children on that bus, we expect them to be protected and obviously that’s not happening.” Ron added, “I’m not looking to play the blame game. I thank John (Wagoner) for holding her back. I believe had he not thrown an arm out she would’ve gone through the windshield and into the back of the other bus. At the same token, it irritates me people think I shouldn’t be mad because she wasn’t hurt that bad.”
Ron said he had heard from his children in the past that kids were allowed to stand and walk around on the bus while it was moving and even admitted his own kids were guilty of it. While he had no good explanation for not voicing concerns before the accident he said, “I guess maybe I didn’t know the severity of what could happen … I’m sure if this had turned out differently, I’d be blaming myself.”
Although Ron and his wife, Alecia, are not sure what the investigation will ultimately reveal or what, if any course of action they will pursue, Ron stressed, “I think definitely I want to see some kind of reform come out of this and some kind of accountability.”
The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and the F.A.C.T. team are still investigating the accident.